Polonara and leukemia: “Death is scary but I will win”

He won national titles in 4 countries – with Vitoria in Spain, Fenerbahce in Turkey, Zalgiris in Lithuania and this year Virtus Bologna in Italy -, he defeated a testicle cancer. Now, at 33 years old, Achille Polonara is playing the most important game: the opponent is myloid leukemia. At the beginning of July, the national team wing moved to Valencia to face chemo cycles and the subsequent marrow transplant. With him the whole family: his wife Erika, the 4 -year -old children’s children and Achille Junior of 2.

Polonara, what were the feelings that have overwhelmed it at the time of diagnosis?

“Discomfort. After two years to fight to defeat a tumor, I fell on the world to discover that I had an even more serious pathology. I started thinking: ‘Why did I do it to me?’

After the first days in Bologna, he is now hospitalized in Valencia. Why this choice?

“Because in Italy no one proposes this type of care. I finished a cycle of chemo last Wednesday and I will start a second in a few days. In these days of pause I take tablets that should in the future lower the risk of recidivism.

How long will it remain in Spain?

“It is not known. The second cycle will be lighter but then there will be the marrow transplant to do. So we will have to evaluate how I react. We live in the day and wait to understand if at the end of July I will be able to leave the hospital for a few days. So I can’t say when I will be able to return to Italy. I am lucky, however, because my family is here with me”.

How did you organize yourself?

“We rented a house here in Valencia. My wife tries to stay as much as possible with me in the hospital and when she leaves the children at home my mother -in -law thinks about it. An extraordinary person who left his job to help us. Having everyone close here is a good feeling, a push to fight”.

The blue meeting is scheduled for Wednesday in view of the European Championship: what message does he want to send to his companions?

“I am very sorry not to be part of the group but of course this summer I will be the first fan of the national team. I have another game to win but of course, if things were going well to Italy it would give me even more strength for my battle”.

Are you in contact with the national teammates?

“Absolutely yes. Every day they don’t miss their closeness. I feel 2-3 every day. For example, on Thursday I made a good chat on the phone with Gallinari, then I heard Tonut. Obviously I spoke with Spissu, for me it is like a brother. Every day I wrote to me Pozzecco who never made me miss his support. I perceived the proximity of the big blue family”.

Realistically where can Italy arrive at the European Championship?

“I hope you take off the rock of the quarterfinals. We hope that the bronze of the girls also pushes the blues to arrive in the top four”.

Every day I see that he puts a photograph of his children on social networks …

“Since I am in the hospital I have seen them only once. It’s not easy.”

How did you explain your absence?

“I started having a fever in May during the series of the quarter -playoffs with Venice. So in Vitoria and Achille Junior we said that I have a virus. Of course, with the little one enough while the great begins to ask questions, he wants to know”.

Did the Scudetto playoffs immediately realized that something was wrong with his body?

“The fever was not going away, I was weak, tired, but I thought it was due at the stressful moment of the season.”

“From the eve of the race-3 against Milan everything has changed. That day I carried out the exams and the post-tumor control CT. A practice that I repeat on a half-yearly basis. And everything was normal. But in the evening in the hotel La Fever does not go down, it is 38.1. Then I decide to call the doctor of the team that reaches me in the room. At that moment he admits that a value of the exams was a little low. After allocation and they are rich in me.

Have you managed to enjoy the conquest of the Scudetto with Virtus?

“The team visited me before leaving for Race-3 of the final, then in the heating they all had the shirt with my name and number. In the after game the video called by the changing rooms. And then the day after Belinelli, Pajola and Shengelia came to bring me the Cup to the hospital, in Bologna. And Toko delivered me the trophy of the best player: ‘It is yours, you are the MVP.”

How much does the basketball court miss?

“At this moment I don’t think about it because I am focused on what I am doing here, in Spain. I don’t think of the field, the ball, the workouts. My goal is to go back to a normal life, then if there will be basketball that is much better. At the moment it is not a priority. From 30 June my contract has ended with Virtus and now I have to think about anything else”.

Are you looking like Virtus and Olimpia are building the roses for the next season?

“The market basketball has always intrigued me. All the more so I have time to do it. I read, I look at the sites, I inform myself.”

Let’s start from Bologna. How does it seem to you?

“A very competitive team is being born. There are interesting young people but also experienced players. And then a group trained by Dusko (Ivanovic, editor’s note) always gives something more. They could take away great satisfactions. The first signature was Vildaza, a player that the coach knows well because he was with him and with me in Vitoria when we won the Spanish championship. In addition to Niang, an interesting NBA prospect. He won’t be easy. “

“He is lucky enough to have an important budget. Every year he manages to strengthen himself with strong players. Brown has experience, Guduric also and then he is back from the Euroleague just won. Botto came under the basket, with which I played at Fenerbahce. A great Milan is being born.”