Elisabetta Iannelli

Biography

A labour and welfare attorney as a background, Elisabetta has dedicated her career to counseling people with disabilities or otherwise discriminated. At the age of 24, as a law student and a bride-to-be, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, 7 years later she suffered a recurrence including nodes, lung and liver. Again she made a full recovery. In the years following, she would receive additional cycles of chemo and radiotherapy for recurrences.

Research Interest

She has been under monoclonal antibody treatment since 2000. She considers herself as a cancer survivor living with a chronic disease. Throughout all of these she completed her law degree, began a successful career and in 2006 became the mother of a lovely girl. Elisabetta has been committed to cancer charities and the rights of cancer patients since 1995. She is the Vice-President of AIMaC (the Italian Association of Cancer Patients), founder and general secretary of F.A.V.O. (Italian Federation of Volunteer based Cancer Organizations) as well as ACS Global Ambassador, board member to the European Cancer Patients Coalition, advisor to the Italian Ministry of Health, author and invited speaker on the rights of cancer patients. Nearly 20 years since her diagnosis, she simply wants to witness that cancer is a chronic disease an individual can live with. Life with cancer is possible, especially if God, your family and good friends around you support your strong desire to fight and to move forward. Life is beautiful, always!