Bologna –
The Rizzoli Foundation launches a fundraiser to finance the donation of high-tech orthopedic prostheses.
Starting today, everyone can donate on the www.retedeldono.it platform to grow the Do.P.O. Fund. This is a project of the Rizzoli Foundation that aims to give a new life to people who have undergone special amputations and who cannot afford the expense of the special aids they would need to be able to return to a full life and their passions. An advanced prosthesis can really make a difference-it means getting back to walking, running, and living independently.
Various orthopedic and other conditions can lead to amputation of limbs or parts of limbs. IRCCS Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli has always had among its patients cases in which amputation is unavoidable. The impact on the person is very great, particularly when it comes to young people, children or people who engage in special activities, such as athletes.
The National Health System provides these people with standard prostheses that are sometimes not sufficient in situations that require technologically advanced and very expensive aids.
The purpose of the Do.P.O. Fund is to decrease economic disparity to grant more equitable access to these types of aids, allowing all patients to obtain the prosthesis that can most improve their quality of life based on their individual situation.
In its first years of work, the Foundation has helped thanks to the Do.P.O. Fund two Rizzoli patients with specific medical and economic parameters, and today it is ready to start fundraising to help as many people as possible thanks to a special protocol that the Institute has drawn up to define the characteristics to have access to the Fund. The first patients were Enrico, aka Bubu Doc, and Kristina, two young people in their early 20s; the goal is to get to donate at least two prostheses a year.
For information on the protocol and access to the fund write to amministrazione@fondazionerizzoli.org
The first major contribution to the Do.P.O. Fund came from Virtus Segafredo Bologna, which has decided to dedicate to this project the 2024-25 edition of the partnership that has seen it committed to the Foundation since last year. Yesterday evening, in fact, on the parquet of the Virtus Segafredo Arena, Virtus Segafredo Bologna President Massimo Zanetti handed over to Foundation President Federica Guidi and IOR General Manager Adrea Rossi a large symbolic check for more than €9,000, the result of the allocation of a percentage of the proceeds from six games of the season.
“The Do.P.O. Fund is a project that is very close to our hearts,” explains Rizzoli Foundation President Federica Guidi, ”because it especially involves young people and seeks to bring lightheartedness, joy and hope back into their daily lives. It is a project that closely touches people’s lives and that we are sure will also reach people’s hearts. The Do.P.O. Fund is an open fund, which the more it grows the more it will be able to help those in need, dedicated to those who need high-tech prosthetics and who, for various reasons, are unable to bear the burden. The Do.P.O. Fund stems from the Foundation’s desire to break down differences and ensure that all patients have access to advanced aids, based on an appropriate rehabilitation project, in order to get going again, lead a fulfilling life and return to their activities.”
