I am a creative and spontaneous Italian woman born and raised in the town of Gorizia, in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia in North Italy.
I came to America by myself when I was 20 years old making one of my biggest dreams come true and I have been living in this country since then.

In October of 2006, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects the brain, spinal cord, and the optic nerves.
I was told that I had the disease and 3 days later, I had my first relapse that sent me to the hospital for ten days.
While learning more about the disease through the National MS Society website, I was able to find out about the work being done at Johns Hopkins to find a cure for the many rare neurological diseases that affect so many of us.

After learning about the many scientists that work at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, I was deeply touched by their commitment and compassion in dealing with these diseases. Learning about them and about their work, I felt inspired to help and to be a part of their world. While my disease has been very active, and is not quite under control, I have been able to do my best in raising funds to support their research.

I started raisining funds by writing a letter to tell my story to family and friends in May of 2007.
With the help of a special friend, in September of the same year, I then created a project that I call Flowers4MS.

In April 2008, I launched a website, called www.Flowers4MS.com, where I share my story and where I sell floral greeting cards.

I donate 100% of the proceeds to support the scientists engaged with Project Restore, a Hopkins-based undertaking to advance therapies for transverse myelitis and multiple sclerosis and to the Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas where Dr. Greenberg opened the second Transverse Myelitis center in the world.

Since its inception, and despite several MS relapses, I have raised over $28,000 dollars and I plan to start working on becoming a foundation this coming fall, MS permitting... :)

Why did I choose flowers to rapresent Multiple Sclerosis?
Well, I view flowers as a symbol of hope, beauty and life and I feel they are the perfect representation of my dream, which is finding a cure for Multiple Sclerosis and for all the rare neurological diseases that are so similar to it.

I wanted to use something as beautiful and positive as flowers to overshadow the pain and suffering that these disorders can cause.
Flowers bring joy and beauty in very simple, but wonderful ways and they speak to everyones hearts through their beauty.

For more information, please visit my site:

www.flowers4MS.com

MS aside, I can tell you that I love cooking, traveling, scrapbooking, gardening, decorating and keeping in touch with my friends that live all over the world.
I love flowers, colors and taking pictures!
I enjoy having my friends come to visit me and I like to show them this country and I also love going back to my country and be surrounded by my old time friends and the things that I love and miss very much.
I love spending time with my flowers in what I call "my little botanical garden".