Nicosiana 2026
Nicosiana 2026 was the third edition of a three-day event devoted to women’s cancer prevention, held in Nicosia on 27, 28 and 29 August 2026. It combined free screenings, talks with specialists and cultural events, with the organisers’ stated aim of promoting early diagnosis and drawing attention to how hard it is to reach health services in inland areas.
It was conceived by the Divina Mania cultural association, promoted with the Municipality of Nicosia in collaboration with ASP di Enna, with artistic direction by Antonio Monsellato.
The free screenings
Over two days, free screenings for women’s health were carried out — gynaecological examinations and breast ultrasounds — alongside talks with doctors on prevention, early diagnosis and treatment pathways.
The figure reported at the close is 220 examinations: 76 mammograms, 62 Pap tests and 82 kits handed out for bowel cancer screening. Doctors and oncologists took part from, among others, the Istituto Oncologico Mediterraneo, Humanitas, the Cannizzaro hospital in Catania and the Umberto I in Enna.
Two conferences ran alongside the clinics. On 27 August, La prevenzione è vita, chaired by Dr Maria Di Costa, a gynaecologist at the Nicosia hospital and president of the town council: speakers included the ASP medical director Paolo La Paglia, the head of the Nicosia health district Giuseppe Bonanno, the administrative head of the Casa della Comunità Melo Lizzo, Dr Francesco Spedale, head of Transfusion Medicine at the Umberto I, and Dr Enza Tomasi of the family clinic; closing the session, Dr Basilio Pecorino, lecturer at the Kore University and head of Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the Umberto I in Enna. On the morning of 28 August, in the hall of the town hall, La prevenzione nel tempo di mezzo: diagnosi precoce e stili di vita sani, chaired by Dr Paolo Fontana, director of the Breast Unit at the Istituto Oncologico del Mediterraneo in Viagrande, with Prof. Vincenzo Adamo, coordinator of the Sicilian Oncology Network, Prof. Massimiliano Berretta of the “Gaetano Martino” teaching hospital in Messina and Dr Cristina Gorgone, geneticist at the IOM.
The mammograph stayed. The new machine installed at the Casa della Comunità in Nicosia came into service on 27 August, the event’s first day, performing its first examination.
The cultural programme
The opening night on 27 August, Voci di Rinascita, directed by Antonio Monsellato, brought together Ludovica Bizzaglia, Alessandro Proietti, Giacomo Ferrara and Alberto Paradossi. It opened with a remembrance of Giuseppe Lo Sauro, who died in October 2025 at twenty-five, a leading figure of the second edition and the driving force behind the fundraiser for epidermolysis bullosa. Eight women told the audience about their own experience of cancer; Bizzaglia hosted the evening and performed a duet with Proietti, and Paradossi lightened the mood with a comic monologue. On 28 August, with the LibroSia association, an evening on La cura by Concita De Gregorio, with readings by Ludovica Bizzaglia and the monologue Mamma by Lorenzo Maniscalco. It closed on 29 August with Oltre le colonne d’Ercole, with Valeria Solarino and pianist Gloria Campaner.
Photography had its own space with Volti di Rinascita, a project by Bianca Burgo portraying twenty women from Nicosia who received a cancer diagnosis: their faces and their stories were shown around the town across the three days.
The event ran a fundraiser for AGO, the association chaired by Dr Sergio Malfitano that accompanies Nicosia’s cancer patients free of charge to the Sicilian centres where chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and other treatments are given. Across the three days the artists Maurizio Cannizzo and Arianna Pantuso painted two works dedicated to Frida Kahlo live, raffled alongside paintings donated by Lorenzo Maniscalco, Sara Raimondi, Luigia Scardino and Pina Sutera. On the closing night AGO’s drivers were called on stage: they put their minibuses and their time at the patients’ disposal. The fundraiser stayed open until 2 September 2026; none of the sources consulted published a final total, and none is estimated here.
Earlier editions
Nicosiana began in Nicosia in 2022, run by the Divina Mania association and conceived by Debora Leonardi. From the start it has paired culture with a charitable cause: the first edition, 1–5 June 2022, was dedicated to the memory of Dr Maria Maira, from Nicosia, who died in May 2021 of ALS, and gave its entire proceeds — 4,500 euro — to AISLA, in support of research.
Good to know
- When: 27, 28 and 29 August 2026 (edition over)
- Where: Nicosia
- Organisers: Divina Mania association, with the Municipality of Nicosia and ASP di Enna
- In collaboration: ViviNicosia, Parliamone…, the episode series born from this edition
- Remembering Giuseppe Lo Sauro: Omaggio a un Gigante, Giuseppe Lo Sauro (in Italian), the episode in which his sisters Irene and Sofia and Antonio Monsellato talk about him
Sources
The account of the three days — the conferences, the doctors’ names, the closing night and the AGO fundraiser — comes from the post-event reports by TeleNicosia (first day, 28 August), TeleNicosia (closing night), TeleNicosia (the 28 August conference) and Enna Press (wrap-up of the third edition).
The original reports are by ViviEnna: the 5 August announcement, the 21 August programme and the 31 August wrap-up, the source of the screening figures and of the mammograph news.
Information on the 2022 edition comes from the account published by AISLA: NICOSIANA, vi raccontiamo come è andata.
