AIL
(Associazione Italiana contro le leucemie-linfomi e mieloma)
is an Italian ‘ONLUS’ (socially active non-profit
organisation) set up in Rome on 8 April 1969. It received official
recognition by a Presidential Decree on 19 September 1975 (no.
481).
AIL’s basic role on a national level (through its 80 provincial
sections) is to provide aid to patients through a symbiotic relationship
established with the main university and hospital hematology units
and departments in Italy.
Patients are the focus of the association’s activities. We
aim to improve quality of life and provide direct assistance to patients
in their struggle against blood diseases.
Mission
•
Awareness campaigns
highlighting the struggle against blood diseases and directed at
the general public.
•
Improving the
quality of life of patients and their families and providing direct
assistance to patients in their struggle against blood diseases.
•
Promoting
and supporting research.
The
importance of this association, which acts on behalf of patients
and of all engaged in the struggle against blood diseases, derives
from its two-level organisational structure (national and provincial).
Nationally, AIL works toward visibility via the main media, but also through
its work with leading institutions, and through nationwide actions. Its awareness
campaigns have been most successful in sensitising public opinion to the importance
of the struggle against blood diseases.
Locally, AIL’s busy network of provincial sections and its
close relations with hospitals, universities and local authorities
make AIL a vitally important point of reference for patients and
their families.
Also through the efforts of AIL, Italian hematology centres provide high quality
services comparable with the best to be found worldwide. Furthermore, scientific
research has made astounding progress.
Through contributions from the many Italians who felt that
they should aid us – or who will do so in the future –,
AIL has done much in the struggle against leukemia, lymphomas and
myeloma. Over the last twenty years, thanks to breakthroughs on
the research front and increasingly effective treatment (including
stem cell transplants), leukemia, lymphomas and myeloma conditions
have become diseases which can be cured more and more frequently.
However, this is not enough. We must consider not only the recovery
rates but also the quality and expectations of life of patients.
