Laura, mother of two beautiful children has been living in Melbourne for several years. The way she lives the cross of this long illness has been an inspiration to all who know her.

Laura tells her own story:

My family and I became Australian citizens this year at the same time as we were dealing with cancer.
I am simply a mother with two young children who was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis four years ago. This has left me with great pain and fatigue in walking and performing ordinary activities with my family.
In March 2020, in order to address the continuous severe pain I was experiencing, I moved to Sicily to undertake a cure with a specialist. It was then that I was told about the relapse of my illness.
I had my last operation at Rizzoli Hospital in which a malignant mass at the L5 hip area was removed. This was totally unexpected, as my return to Italy was for therapy to ease the nerve pain I had been suffering.
Praying when suffering is a very difficult thing to do, but every night before falling asleep I always say a phrase I heard from Carron: "I am you who make me", and I offer that specific moment.
Despite the international travel bans due to the pandemic, my husband and my children managed to fly to Italy and be with me. Their presence is a key for me. We are so lucky not only to have two strong families helping us, but also our two beautiful kids who are my strength. I am currently doing prototherapy in Trento (Italy) to clean the area and get better more quickly.

Laura, Melbourne, Australia

Laura is currently battling. She is not hiding her battle, but takes everything that happens as something given. Irene, one of her friends in Melbourne, was struck by Laura’s realism: “when she is in pain she says ‘I am in pain’, when she feels in despair she calls and says ‘come over because I am at the bottom of the barrel’. Laura’s illness is ‘mysteriously’ working, in the sense that it is moving the CL community throughout Australia. As noted by Raffaella, another friend of the CL community in Melbourne, “after so many happy times together, the suffering struck. I was powerless. I could only witness her journey through pain, and pray hard to our Lord to ease it, all the time looking for a meaning for this Calvary that my dearest friend had to go through. And I got angry because it is just unfair.” Witnessing Laura’s illness made Raffaella feel "enormously inadequate to help Laura, still I am sure our friendship is not defined by our limits; it is looking forward together and constantly asking God to keep our gaze fixed on Him”. Again, as Maria Cecilia from Sydney observed, “her ‘fiat’ to Jesus in all she lives is so undeniable, so clear that I desire it for myself”.God is really using all circumstances to mysteriously draw every and each of us to Him. And all He asks is our “fiat”.