Siblings are the people that teach us about life, they teach us what it means to be kind, to be caring, and to be fair. Most importantly they teach us we will not always be right, and that we can fail but not to give up. They teach us about teamwork, they teach us to be resilient, and they teach us what it is to be loved and to love. Nothing can ever break a bond between siblings because it’s not fake, you can’t pretend - you will always see each other at your best, at your worst, at your highs and at your lows.

I am writing this on behalf of my brother, and one of my best friends Paolo. Those who know and love Paolo will know he is proud, he is stubborn and he likes to keep things private. After a lot of convincing he has agreed to allow me to write about his story so far.

To say 2023 has been a whirlwind is an understatement… Paolo began to feel unwell in January, taking a drastic turn which resulted in Paolo ending up in hospital in February. He was completely jaundice with severe fatigue and in a lot of pain in his abdomen. We were originally told it was potentially due to a blocked bile duct, which then turned out to be cancer in the main bile duct between his liver and pancreas and needed urgent invasive surgery which was going to be complicated due to the location of the tumour. As a family, this unexpected news hit us all very hard, and we knew we needed to be there for Paolo.

Paolo successfully had the 11 hour surgery (I must say this was one of the worst days of my life waiting for the surgeon to confirm he was awake and it all went well) and most importantly the surgeon managed to remove the cancerous tumour along with taking out parts of his pancreas and gallbladder. Although this was a huge step towards his recovery, Paolo now had to endure being in intensive care for 2 weeks alone which also meant staying away from his kids Leonardo and Nova, and his partner Roni. During the surgery, they had also taken biopsies from the lymph nodes in the surrounding area.

With what seemed like forever (and I’m sure longer for Paolo), the results came back showing indications of cancer originating in his pancreas, which means he will need to have intensive chemotherapy starting in June for 6 months. For anyone who knows someone who has had chemo knows how hard it is on the person, which means Paolo will not be able to work for a while - leaving him and his family in financial hardship.

Paolo is an amazing dad and partner. He loves Leonardo, Nova and Roni more than anything in the world. He has been finding it so hard not being able to have the energy and the strength to be there for his children continuously. He has been super strong throughout this so far and he will need a lot more strength to get through the next steps and stages of chemo.

With this in mind, I will be doing a sunrise to sunset charity golf day in which I will walk nonstop from 5am - 9pm to raise money for Paolo, Roni, Leonardo and Nova. I will aim to get to over 80 holes played and around 30 miles walked. This will be happening at my home club, The Kendleshire Golf Club on Monday 17th July.

I am writing this to ask for any donation you can contribute to help support Paolo, Roni, Leonardo and Nova to reduce any additional stress financially and to help cover some of their rent and bills (and maybe pay for them to go on a holiday once this nightmare is over). Thank you so much in advance, we truly appreciate any support you can offer.

With much love,

Stefano