Geppi Cucciari and Bianca Balti: Illness is not a battle, rebelling against the role of warrior

In recent years, more and more women facing the disease have decided to reject the label of "warriors". Among them, Geppi Cucciari e Bianca Balti, two public figures who have expressed their dissent against a language which, although born to encourage, can be reductive and even harmful.

What Geppi Cucciari said in 2023

In 2023, Geppi Cucciari he addressed the issue of illness with a biting reflection. During an interview, he declared: “Would dying be a surrender? Does succumbing mean not having fought well? Illness is not a war. Scientific research wages war”. Strong words, which aimed to overturn the rhetoric of combat, underlining how the responsibility for healing cannot fall on the shoulders of those who fall ill.

Cucciari is also Ambassador of AIRC Foundation, a commitment that he has been carrying forward with conviction for over ten years. He declared: "Unfortunately, we have all come close to this disease in our lives, we have seen someone we love not make it, and not because they didn't have the strength, but because sometimes on the other side there is something too big, too strong, or maybe because it's too late. This is why I chose to team up with 6 AIRC researchers, all together we can help build a future increasingly free from cancer". Cucciari emphasizes that true support for the fight against cancer comes through research, also inviting people to allocate the 5×1000 to AIRC to support the work of researchers.

With his words, Cucciari wanted to draw attention to the fragility and dignity of those who go through a difficult journey, without feeling forced to adhere to a model of strength imposed from outside. Not all people want to be heroes, and the risk of this narrative is that of making those who do not recognize themselves in it feel inadequate.

Carlo Conti's indifference towards Bianca Balti at Sanremo 2025

After two years, on the stage of Sanremo 2025, Bianca Balti found herself having to deal with the same rhetoric. The top model, who had clearly expressed that she wanted to be present at the Festival as a woman and a professional, and not as a symbol of her illness, was introduced by Carlo Conti with words that have caused discussion: “Here is Bianca Balti, especially in this period a warrior”.

Balti, who had already declared that she did not want to be defined by her illness, responded with her usual elegance, reiterating that her presence at Sanremo was a celebration of life, not an act of resistance. But the moment highlighted how difficult it is for common language to break away from entrenched stereotypes.

The episode has sparked many reactions, with criticism directed at Conti for having ignored the model's wishes and having reduced her participation to a heroic narrative imposed from outside. The story has rekindled the debate on how the experiences of sick people are told and on the need to listen to the interested parties rather than pigeonholing them into a pre-established language.

A necessary change of perspective

The words of Geppi Cucciari, which are also perfect for 2025, and the reaction of Bianca Balti show how many women want to be recognized for who they are, without being forced into definitions that they don't feel are their own. And above all without going to invalidate who, instead, face the disease in another way. No choice is "wrong" or to be rewarded. Respect is fundamental. It is not a question of diminishing the strength of those who face the disease with a fighting spirit, but of give space to all forms of experience, without imposing a single narrative.