The Nation is still talking about us!

"I have a good right hand, but the disease got me, because it is the part that hit first".

Enzo Zini is a retired doctor, has a contagious smile and two deep, sea-coloured eyes, and has been suffering from Parkinson's disease for years. Despite this he drives, walks, and above all often trains with boxing gloves, thanks to the invaluable work of the association Un gancio al Parkinson, which has been providing this type of therapy to patients for years.

"For Parkinsonian people," Enzo continues, "having the chance to socialise is very important, because people tend to hide until they gradually isolate themselves. Ever since I discovered the possibility of coming to boxing training, designed especially for us, I haven't missed a lesson. It brings everything together, we are together, we rediscover human relationships, and above all it helps a lot to improve reflexes, with a pinch of competitiveness and always a smile on my face. It has really become a regular event for me".

A few days ago, the entire Training Lab gym in Via Scipione Ammirato organised a party for the patients of Un gancio al Parkinson, who all gathered together, as if to celebrate the end of the toughest months of the pandemic, where, however, the activities did not stop.

'We are happy to put complicated months behind us, where we still managed to go ahead and help our patients,' explains Dr Maurizio Bertoni, president of the association. In collaboration with various American universities, we have carried out two very important scientific studies, in which we demonstrated how boxing training actually helps Parkinson's patients, because it increases reflexes, decreasing, for example, the possibility of accidental falls. Right now we have almost 80 patients of all ages, from 40 to over 80, and at all stages of the disease. Our classes are every day, Monday to Saturday from morning to evening, but the thing that worries us the most is that we have fewer and fewer spaces, and we are beginning to have difficulties if we have to take on new patients. The wonderful thing is to see how our patients react and become attached to our path, maybe they are hesitant or afraid at first, but after the first time they all come back. We are proud of what we have done here, and we must thank the Cassa di Risparmio, which has helped us along with various private investors, who for example bought us a brand new piece of technology, capable of allowing us to develop a new study on the visio-motor abilities of patients. We also appeal to the good heart of the Florentines, since the 5×1000 period is approaching'.

The flagship of the association are the instructors, who dedicate body and soul to their acquired 'grandparents'. "It's certainly a wonderful thing and one that fills us with joy," explain Andrea Rizzuto, Dario Ballini and Jacopo Carocci, the three instructors aged between 24 and 26. "These are people with whom we have become real friends, we have established a real relationship, they open up to us and really tell us what they think. We are valves of venting, and in the meantime we know that we are doing them good, helping them socially, and carrying out studies that may be useful in the future'.