Achille Polonara recounts his battle: "I will beat leukemia, the Azzurri will help me"

Achille Polonara spoke about his illness in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport. The Virtus Bologna champion is hospitalized in Valencia after discovering he has myeloid leukemia. “At the diagnosis I felt despondency. After two years fighting to defeat a tumor, the world fell on me in discovering that I had an even more serious disease. I began to think: ‘why me, what have I done wrong?’. Compared to this disease, what I had before is not comparable. When I heard the word leukemia I juxtaposed it with death, it is scary”.

“I am in Valencia because in Italy no one is offering this kind of treatment– he explained– . I finished one round of chemo last Wednesday and will start a second in a few days. In these days off I take tablets that should lower the risk of recurrence in the future. A practice that is not in our country. The first few days I wasn”t great: I had nausea and stomach ache and they fed me through IVs”.

Polonara received support from Pozzecco and his national teammates, who will soon be busy at the’European Championship: “I am very sorry not to be part of the group but of course this summer I will be the first supporter of the national team. I have another game to win but of course, if things go well for Italy it will give me even more strength for my battle”.

“I am in touch with so many: every day they don&#8217t let me lack their closeness. I feel 2-3 of them every day. For example on Thursday I had a good talk on the phone with Gallinari, then I heard from Tonut. Of course I talked with Spissu, he is like a brother to me. Every day Pozzecco writes me, who has never failed to support me. I felt the closeness of the big blue family”.