All crazy for ‘Willchair’ in the backstage of the Concertone on May 1st which this year returned to Piazza San Giovanni with a line up of great occasions. From co-conductor Bugo to Enrico Ruggeri, from Coma_Cose to Valerio Lundini, many of the protagonists wanted to sit on the design chair created by designer Derek Castiglioni starting from the recycling of a wheelchair. The presence of the chair in the backstage of the Concertone is part of an awareness campaign on the fight against multiple sclerosis, carried out by Novartis in collaboration with AISM – Italian Multiple Sclerosis Association Onlus. A campaign created to give sick young people the strength to react and never give up to the limits imposed by the disease: 3,600 young people between 20 and 40 years receive a diagnosis of MS every year, a chronic neurodegenerative disease that affects the central nervous system and that in the 25% of cases cause walking difficulties, having a significant impact on the school and professional sphere, as well as on family and relationship life. The transformation of the wheelchair in the work of Derek Castiglioni thus becomes a metaphor of hope and a positive neologism for many young people, embodying the progress of therapeutic innovation and research on Multiple Sclerosis. “The creative process – explains the designer – was born from the comparison with people who have had a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. The comparison was very exciting and from here came the spark of creativity that focused on the element that differs wheelchair from a traditional type chair, which is the wheel element. The thing I like most about Willchair is to have created a design element that can be a positive symbol for the future of all the people who have received a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. My will is a small contribution that hopes to sensitize more and more people to research and ensure that it can obtain increasingly positive results to give hope to those who will have a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis “. Today , thanks to early diagnosis, therapeutic innovation and multidisciplinary management it is possible to live beyond the limits imposed by the disease and significantly slow down the course v towards disability. Graduating on time, going dancing with friends, traveling, establishing oneself at work, creating one’s own family, are life stages that can be considered achievable.At the basis of the project brought to Piazza San Giovanni there are the stories and experiences of many children with MS who have talked about themselves through Checkmate, an initiative that encourages them to score the winning move, checkmate, to take back those spaces that they fear lost due to the disease and put Multiple Sclerosis in the corner. The May Day concert, which every year deals with issues of importance for society, reaching millions of people with the power of music, especially young people between 18 and 40 years of age, is obviously the ideal context to talk about such an important topic and generate closeness to as many young people who daily, in silence, face Multiple Sclerosis and the fears it generates.