PORDENONE – He died on October 24, 2022, due to an incurable disease, Alfio Scandurra, 52 years old, from Pordenone. He was well known not only in the city for his commitment to the environment and his trekking activity with donkeys, in particular with his long-time friend Fiocco. Writer and blogger, he has been a guest on several national TV programs. He had played rugby with Pordenone.
The accident
A little over a year ago Alfio had fallen from a tree while he was working. He was a gardener by trade and specialized in pruning tall trees. Being among the branches many meters high was his way to become a child again, to disconnect from the noises of the world, to savor the scent of leaves, bark and resin and dream of being in the middle of the woods even if he was perhaps in the garden of an apartment building in the city. He tried not to hurt the plant, to prune only when the wood was already gangrenous and even there he used the greatest possible care. That day he fell from almost ten meters high and remained practically unharmed. Full of barrel and black marks, but still whole. A miracle. He had worn the torso for a few days, but then he was back in the trees again to work and to organize walks and trekking with his donkeys, Fiocco, Sole and Piccola, his new, great passion after he stopped playing rugby.
The illness
In the dozens of CT scans and torso resonances made following the accident it was revealed that he had a speck in the pancreas. And cancer, but still small, probably operable. It seemed that that fall was a double miracle because pancreatic cancer, which is almost a death sentence, leaves little chance only if removed when it is at the very beginning. And there, thanks to the fall, the diagnosis had been very early.
The possibility that early diagnosis could save him over the months turned out to be just a wishful thinking. He faced the therapies continuing to the end of his life, his job to organize trekking with donkeys, with discretion, optimism, dignity, indeed refinement.
So much so that many, once they heard the news of his disappearance, asked if he was missing due to an accident.