Communications

To give an idea of the scope and value of the work carried out by the National Gigi Ghirotti Foundation, it may be worthwhile knowing that on April 7, 2005, the President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, awarded it a gold medal for "Service to Public Health".

That date marked more or less thirty years since the Foundation began, formed initially as a committee, on May 5, 1975, less than a year after Ghirotti's death, to keep alive the memory of the life, message and commitment of this great journalist.

Its scope, officially ratified by bye-laws, is to foster a better quality of life for people suffering from cancer and their families.

Amongst the enormous number of initiatives put forward during these decades, particular attention has focused on extending help at home and in hospices to patients in the advanced stages of cancer.

Since 1999, the Foundation, through a national Listening Center, has provided free psychological support, information and guidance to people coping with a cancerous illness.

The Center, via its freefone number 800 301510 (calls and services are totally free), takes thousands of calls from all regions of Italy from cancer sufferers and their families and, in that sense, represents an important hub in the network providing help to someone suffering from cancer and their family.

The organization has two main areas of operation: to provide psychological support to patients and their carers and, at the same time, to give information and guidance on the national social and health resources for diagnosis, treatment, and assistance in the oncological, analgesic and palliative care areas (for people in the advanced and terminal stages of the illness).

The Listening Center's services are also offered by meeting directly with those who need them in hospital departments and a pain therapy clinic (at Rome's Hospital Physiotherapy Institutes), or at home, or even at the Foundation's head office via private consultations and group meetings.

Setting up other Listening Centers in the various regions along the line of the national one, in order to reach as many people as possible, is the Foundation's new challenge to suffering.

In this challenge, Finmeccanica stands alongside the Foundation with conviction and enthusiasm, both on its own account and with the involvement of the people who work for the Group, and asks everyone to support the project of spreading a network of "Ghirotti" Listening Centers throughout Italy, in the knowledge that listening and paying attention to people who are suffering is an essential complement to any treatment.