The beauty of a project that grows to help people

Interview a Piero Meucci, director of AICARMNews

di Francesca Conti

Piero, your career in journalism is rich and varied: from Sole 24 Ore to ANSA, from the direction of Corriere di Firenze to the leadership of online newspapers such as STAMP Toscana and The Dot Cultura. In addition to journalism, you have held institutional and academic roles. But how did your commitment as a volunteer for AICARM come about?

It all started by chance, meeting Professor Franco Cecchi, a friend and colleague of my wife. He was involved in the AICARM project and proposed that I contribute to the creation of a means of information. I accepted for two reasons: first, because challenges and new initiatives have always fascinated me. In my career I have often worked on nascent projects, almost start-ups. Second, because the topic concerned cardiology, and at that time I was practicing a sport at a competitive level, so I was personally interested in understanding more about the heart and its mechanisms.

What was your concrete role within AICARM?

We started with a newsletter, a tool to spread information about the Association's activities and the needs of the community of patients and doctors. Obviously, it wasn't easy at the beginning: we had to create a broad and interesting newsletter. Over time, we involved volunteers, doctors and patients willing to tell their stories. Journalist Laura D'Ettole also made a fundamental contribution. We structured the information with a balance between interviews, scientific insights, testimonials and news.

Today AICARM is a nationally and internationally recognized association. What effect does it have to have contributed to this growth?

It is a great satisfaction. Certainly not because of me, but because I was lucky enough to tell this story from the beginning. Seeing an idea transform into a solid reality is always exciting. Furthermore, this experience allowed me to meet leading figures in the medical-scientific field, enriching my professional and human background. Another important milestone was the book “Il cuore grande”: a collection of stories, testimonies and reflections that represents a point of arrival on this journey.

You are a professional journalist with a lot of experience. What changes when you do the same job, but as a volunteer?

Technically, nothing. Volunteering requires the same level of professionalism: if you offer your expertise, you have to do it to the best of your ability. The difference lies in the extra attention paid to people. In a context like AICARM, the news is not an end in itself, but must always consider the sensitivity of patients, their privacy, their well-being. In a generalist newspaper, these aspects sometimes take a back seat to the importance of the news.

What was the most rewarding aspect of this experience?

Seeing an initial project become a consolidated reality is always wonderful. With AICARM it happened that some of our articles and our themes reached the national press and Rai, broadening the visibility of issues often considered niche. Collaborating with people like President Cecchi, Vice President Valerio Pelini and Paolo Palma, Director of Communications, was stimulating: we worked with passion and friendship, and this is what makes volunteering special.