“My son for nine months in hospital, he defeated the disease to be reborn”

One in a hundred thousand makes it: the acute ‘T’ type lymphoblastic leukemia that hit Mario Maffeis di Vertova when he was only four years old, was particularly aggressive, and was discovered at a very advanced stage. But he – thanks to the care of the doctors of the Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital – managed to overcome it, in spite of the statistics. So small he already shows the temper of a warrior, browsing through the photos taken in the lane we find him perfectly at ease on the shoulders of the Avengers, his favorite superheroes. Now he is 7 years old, “he is in remission” – as his mother Alessandra Gusmini says cautiously – and runs fast in the park of the former convent in his village. He sits next to us and smiles shyly. Like crocuses after a dark winter reappear in the meadow announcing spring, he too, after having gone through the long night of a very serious illness, “now enjoys his rebirth”, as his mother says with a smile.

Mario attends the second grade of primary school and «for the first time, in January – explains his father Marco – in the results of the blood tests there is no asterisk».