In ItalianoPER DAVIDE
31 March 2002 - Abruzzo, Italy

Carlo and Serenella live in L'Aquila, and are the parents of Davide, a beautiful, intelligent child. In Italy the physicians diagnosed to the child a rare illness, Canavan disease. For this illness, they said that there is currently no cure. Carlo and Serenella were desperate, they felt the world collapsing on them. However they reacted and, fortunately, after some days of searching, they found on the Internet the website of the CANAVAN FOUNDATION RESEARCH, devoted to genetic therapy for Canavan-affected children. There was hope!!!

They found that one of the researchers in the project is an Italian PhD, Paola Leone. They wrote her and received an immediate reply. In the month of February 2002 they flew to the USA to have little David visited, to the aim of having him included among the children already undergoing an experimental, expensive therapy.

Davide has the Italian health insurance, but for his disease there is no conventional therapy, pharmaceutical companies do not invest on drug research for rare disease, so the only hope comes from the world of scientific research, that does not have large funds, is almost exclusively supported by contributions and donations. Carlo and Serenella are doing whatever possible to have their Davide included in the experimental therapy group.

Everybody can help, and not only Davide, but all the other children like him, for whom research can do something. The only way is collect funds just as foundations do in the United States, where research is financed mostly by private contributions. PhD Augusto Odone (the father of Lorenzo, a child sadly famous for his illness, as told in the moving film Lorenzo's Oil) chose as his life's mission help to research and his competence and iron will allowed research to make giant progress in the field or rare, myelin disease. His association "the Myelin Project" financed research all over the world contributing to give a hope to the affected children and their families. In the sites linked below all the information to help the research are supplied:

Abruzzo 2000 Homepage
Our help will make a difference!!