Eva Destounis, when she was “visited” by cancer, left Athens and settled in Evinochori, Aetoloakarnania. The disease has become a multiplier of love: for oneself, for people, for nature. On her estate, she gave a second chance to thirteen animals, dogs and horses, most of which were abused. Among them is Rambo, the dog. His people died in Mati. He was saved by burns, he fought to survive. Today he lives happily in this “ark”.

Antonis Arvanitakis had his leg amputated after a traffic accident. He turned his pain into strength. He lives in Kastoria, does rhythmic gymnastics, writes books on how to improve the quality of life through exercise and proper nutrition, and has created an online community – he calls it a family – of people who share the same philosophy.

Patrinos Nikos Papagelis was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at the age of 14. Two years later, his leg was amputated from a height of strength, this was the only way to cure cancer. He didn’t bend over. He turned to sports and became a champion. A few days ago he won his first two bronze medals at the Para Cycling World Championships in Magiano, Italy. He dreams of taking part in the 2024 Paralympics and starting a family of his own.

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”: in the case of Eve, Antonis and Nikos, Nietzsche’s statement is confirmed in the most significant, most touching way.

I learned to walk from scratch

It was a spring evening in 2008 in Thessaloniki. I was 23 years old, in my last year of AUTH Physical Education and Sports, I worked as an assistant canoe coach in the Kalamaria group and, at the same time, I was a part-time job as a courier for additional income. Evil has happened in a dark alley. My motorcycle collided with a car, I was thrown more than twenty meters, I was in the hospital with my leg in a very serious condition. Six weeks hospitalization, five limb-saving surgeries. “In a year, your leg will be the same as before,” the doctors told me. Five years and thirteen operations later – some in the Netherlands, my mother’s home country – the situation has remained the same. Expectations on the one hand, disappointments and constant disappointments on the other: that’s what I experienced. The prospect of recovery became more and more distant, and at some point the only solution was to amputate the injured leg.

The last operation, amputation, was the easiest for me, almost pleasant, I would say really liberating. I would no longer feel like a meteor, I would have some specific data, and based on them I would act. I returned to Kastoria, my hometown, with a prosthesis and the hope of a daily life that would be functional again. It wasn’t easy at all. It took me a year to learn how to walk again with a new leg, and three years to learn how to run. Meanwhile I watched life pass me by. My friends graduated, went to graduate school or got a job, some started a family. I am also at zero, in immobility.

Since childhood, I loved gymnastics, so I found a way out in it. I started doing some exercises at home on my own, using only my body weight – the basic principle of rhythmic gymnastics. My muscles gradually began to grow stronger, my mood improved. The results were impressive. Decided to upload the video to YouTube. The response was so great that I soon created my own channel. This is how bodyweightmuscle.com was born. Then I wrote books available in electronic format; in a few weeks there will be another one, “The 7am Workout Limit”, about the benefits of morning exercise, which I consider almost a spiritual experience. Over the past few months, I have built an international online community of men who share a common philosophy of exercise and life. It already has 600 members. But all this is not just business projects and a way to earn money, this is my need to share with others what I have learned. I have changed a lot through my adventures. I became more dynamic, I had big goals – before I was not interested in doing something above average – I found a strength in myself that I did not suspect. Most people live at 30% of their potential, and unless we experience something as painful, we rarely use the rest. But in the end, the handcuffs of life are sometimes very… empowering.

Cancer is back to wake me up

The day my second pregnancy test came back positive (I already had an eight-year-old illegitimate daughter) and I happily called my gynecologist to make an appointment, she had the results of a Pap test I had done in front of her. a few days earlier. He showed malignancy. It was 2001, I was 29, just married, so as soon as he recommended abortion and surgery, I refused. “I want this baby,” I told her. “Don’t think about the child you will lose, but about the one you have. Are you going to leave him an orphan?” he replied. Under a lot of pressure – and with a legal guarantee from her and the hospital that the decision was mine and they would not be held liable – I was operated on at three months, circumferentially, so that there would be no impact on fetus. Six months later I was holding my son Angelos. With appropriate treatment, the problem was overcome. In 2013, cancer reappeared. This time in the liver. More operations, more chemotherapy. “Fortunately, we caught him,” they said me doctors.

New house 2019 He found me running with… a thousand. I had a great job and a satisfactory income (I’m a marketing and communications manager for an Athens group of companies), I created two restaurants, I couldn’t remember since when I celebrated Easter and Christmas with my kids. Then I realized that cancer is not my enemy, but my friend. He came into my life to ring the bell. It sounds bad when there are people who died from this disease, but it happened to me. He “came” to me at a time when I did not pay attention to him at all, I did not care, I thought about anything, but not about my own needs. Finally, I decided to listen to him. I asked my company to work remotely – otherwise I would have resigned – I sold my stores and came to Evinohori in Etoloakarnania, an estate full of citrus trees that my father bought when I was a teenager. My current husband, Kyriakos, followed me a few months later. My children (by that time I had another son) nevertheless grew up and dispersed.

We have built a new everyday life here. It may seem banal, but every morning I open the window, see the trees and say: “Today everything will be perfect.” I suppose that! Even if it isn’t, I won’t let it close with gloomy thoughts and a bad mood, because I know that after a while, when we look back in time, even the biggest difficulties seem insignificant. We overcome mountains without realizing it. I get tired, I work from dawn until late at night, the animals also need care. I have more obligations than ever, but I feel freer than ever. The disease became a multiplier of the love that I had inside: for people, for those animals that have suffered so much and need me, for themselves. I didn’t have confidence. I was a chubby child, from a young age sat on debilitating diets in order to become “pretty.” Now I love myself. I feel great even though my body is covered in scars from top to bottom due to surgeries. These scars are my story.

There are also moments when I cringe when I say “why me?”. I regret it right away. I think about how many young people, how many children are defeated by this disease. I am complete. I also use my sense of humor. Cancer is my most stable relationship, a partner who never left me. Creation comes through hardship. If you don’t force yourself, you rest, you get stuck. And I’m not afraid of death. If you are afraid to die, you are actually afraid to live.

I drew strength from the disability of others

I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma of the hip at the age of twelve. The tumor was removed, chemotherapy was given, and the healing process began. But about two years later, the cancer reappeared: more aggressive, in a more difficult place, inaccessible for surgery. There was no other solution than amputation of the entire limb, and even from the height of the thigh. Only in this way it would be possible to solve the problem at the root and avoid new metastases. It is not easy for a fourteen year old to hear that he will lose his leg. I thought my life was coming to an end. Will I walk again? Can I go to school? What would my daily life be like? This is also due to the fact that in Greece disability is intertwined with impotence, with the inability to do anything. This is wrong. I found out later.

I returned home after the amputation, trying to recover. Fortunately, I had a very strong network of support from my parents, relatives and friends. In fact, during that period, my mother gave me an invaluable gift: from time to time she invited people with amputations who went in for sports to her home and told me about her life, about what they liked, despite their disability. Then I gained strength, said “I’ll go with this” and decided to switch to cycling. And that’s where I got: the highest places in the world rankings. I hope that I can also participate in the Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024. In Tokyo I was sixth, now I’m aiming higher. I want a medal for this… Niko, my teenager, who was stunned to find out that he would be left with one leg.

Disability is a part of life, it can happen to anyone, but it doesn’t define us or deprive us of our dreams. This is what I tell the kids in the schools that I visit often. There is only one claim: there is no significant support from the state, which is what each family does alone. Therefore, this year I will again hold the “Wheels of Will” campaign. On May 14, I will bike from Athens to Patras to raise money for the Flame Association of Parents of Children with Cancers. Only they helped me then, I owe them, in turn, to help them now.