Emanuela Perinetti was a young woman at the height of a promising career in sports management. “She had an extraordinary, fulfilling network of relationships. She was part of one of Italy’s 100 leading startups and worked with the heroes of her childhood, people like soccer star Alessandro Del Piero,” recalls her father, Giorgio Perinetti, a prominent Italian soccer executive and current general manager of Athletic Club Palermo. “And then a monster crept in and took her away.”

That monster was anorexia nervosa. In November 2023, it claimed Emanuela’s life. She was just 33.

“What I’m left with is helplessness, the bewilderment of a parent who cannot understand what is happening, and the despair of a father who cannot help his daughter live, who cannot save her,” Perinetti says.

A year ago, he channeled his grief into a book about his daughter, Quello che non ho visto arrivare. Emanuela, l’anoressia e ciò che resta di bello (What I Didn’t See Coming: Emanuela, Anorexia and What Remains Beautiful), written with journalist Michele Pennetti and published by Cairo in November 2025. It is more than a personal tribute: the book aims to raise awareness of eating disorders.

An estimated 600,000 people in Italy suffer from anorexia nervosa, part of a wider population of 3.5 million people affected by eating disorders. Of those with anorexia, 90% are women, and 90% are between the ages of 15 and 25. Treating the illness is challenging, and, as Perinetti’s experience shows, recognizing its warning signs is far from straightforward.

His personal tragedy led Perinetti to take part in a public meeting held recently in the Senate’s Caduti di Nassiriya room, where lawmakers announced plans for a bill that would establish, for the first time in Italy, a public health care pathway for patients with anorexia nervosa.

The meeting was organized by Sen. Filippo Melchiorre. The proposed legislation was submitted to Marcello Gemmato, undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Health, to begin the legislative process.

The proposal is intended to provide patients with access to treatment and give families the support they need. “In many regions, public hospitals do not have enough beds,” says Pennetti. “In Puglia, for example, there are just four beds for people with anorexia and other eating disorders; in Campania, there are none. In many parts of the country, treatment is available only at private facilities, where costs are extremely high.”

“Anorexia nervosa is a complex disease,” Gemmato says. “It is essential to organize health care services so they can intervene early.” In May, in Bari, Gemmato plans to present a nationwide model for the treatment of patients with anorexia nervosa, developed in cooperation with the national directorate of health care organizations.