Dear friends,

As most of you know , the past 12 months have been challenging for me.

I had a stroke in August 2023 during a holiday with my family, which caused the temporary loss of my speech as well as the use of my right arm. I was lucky I was close to a top specialist hospital in Pamplona and the ambulance service intervened within minutes: speed of response is key to mitigate the permanent damages caused by blood clots.

I recovered 100% thanks to the brilliant doctors and nurses in Spain, but also due to the help and professionalism of friends and specialists in my home town in Italy. There, I had a heart operation to address the root cause of the stroke (a PFO I did not know I had!) and months of speech therapy and check-ups.

Special thanks to Doctors Ilaria, Serena, Marco and Diego, I could not have done it without you!

if you are curious about PFO (and you should be):

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/patent-foramen-ovale/symptoms-causes/syc-20353487

To add to the challenging situation, my 85yrs old dad was diagnosed with an incurable throat cancer in February this year, with a consequent rush to arrange for carers and machinery to allow him to spend his last few months at home rather than in hospital. He had tracheostomy and PEG, not an easy clinical condition to care for outside hospitals. My sister Barbara and I managed, against all odds, to create a team of 4 carers/nurses 24/7, so dad spent his last few months at home. He passed away peacefully on August 4th: RIP Papi, we miss you dearly!

When I left Pamplona’s hospital, I bumped into a CRIS Cancer’s desk with two wonderful volunteers at the entrance: I decided back then that I would do something for/with them if I ever recovered, so here I am! Now it’s time for me to raise some much needed money for CRIS Cancer, a charity I love and have been supporting for years, as well as awareness around strokes/ictus: they are far more common across all ages than you think, they can be easily prevented, but we just don’t talk about it enough!!!!

More about CRIS Cancer and the awesome work Lola, Marta, Diego and team are doing to channel resources where they are really needed:

https://criscancer.org/en/

Please donate what you can, I assure you the money will be well spent and I will run hard to earn your support!

Thank you, Matteo

More about CRIS Cancer Foundation:

We are an international charity that funds research into pioneering new cancer treatments to give the best chance of survival to patients who do not respond to conventional treatments.

By stepping in where there are gaps in funding, as well as collaborating and building alliances worldwide with top research institutions, we support research scientists to speed up innovative therapies – bringing hope to thousands of cancer patients.

In addition, since its creation in 2010, the CRIS Cancer Foundation has been identifying talent amongst researchers worldwide. Through our grants and fellowships, we give scientists the funding and support they need throughout their research careers to make significant discoveries in cancer treatments.

Thank you for supporting us today! Your donations are crucial to combat Cancer!