There’s a story that’s running alongside us this year. It’s the story of Damiano, a 49-year-old office worker and amateur runner from Ivrea. It’s a story of courage, world-class medical care, and what sports can achieve even when all seems lost. It’s a true story that deserves to be told.
It all started during a routine run. Ten kilometers, his usual pace, steady breathing. Then, suddenly, a sharp pain in his chest. Brief, intense. Damiano stopped; it passed. He told himself it was probably nothing.
But a few days later, he was having trouble climbing the stairs. He wanted to get to the bottom of it.
The diagnosis was devastating: fulminant giant-cell myocarditis— , a rare and fatal condition in which the heart can no longer sustain the body. No prior symptoms, no family history. Just a sharp pain, and then the abyss.
Rushed to the hospital Molinette Hospital in Turin, Damiano went through the most critical stages of his life. First, he was admitted to the Coronary Intensive Care Unit, coordinated by Dr. Simone Frea of Professor Gaetano Maria De Ferrari’s University Cardiology Department. Then he was transferred to the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit, coordinated by Dr. Anna Trompeo, where his condition deteriorated rapidly to the point of requiring ECMO support—the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine that literally kept him alive while doctors raced against time. The situation was critical: he was placed on the national emergency transplant list.
Even in the most critical moments, hooked up to ECMO and confined to bed, Damiano didn’t give up. He began to move, to exercise his muscles, to try to sit up and stand. He would fall, get back up, and try again.
He says it was sports that taught him this: to set a goal, to endure the hardships of achieving it, and to never give up. That mindset, during the darkest moments of his life, probably saved his life twice.
After eight days on ECMO, a breakthrough occurred: a compatible heart became available. The surgery was performed by Professor Massimo Boffini and Dr. Erika Simonato—Damiano’s condition was extremely critical, but in cases like this, a transplant is the only real chance for survival. It went well. It gave Damiano a new lease on life.
After the transplant, he underwent a long rehabilitationat the IRCCS Fondazione Maugeri in Veruno, under the supervision of Dr. Massimo Pistono. Then came his first steps. Then work. Then his first few kilometers of running, gradually increasing in distance—and training sessions with some of the doctors on Professor Mauro Rinaldi’s team, particularly Dr. Matteo Giunta.
Damiano’s story is intertwined with an extraordinary milestone for Piedmontese medicine: the Heart and Lung Transplant Center at Molinette Hospital, directed by Professor Mauro Rinaldi, is currently celebrating 1,300 transplants performed since it began operations—800 heart transplants and 500 lung transplants, from 1990 to the present. A number that speaks to decades of courageous decisions, advanced technologies, and lives restored.
This result is also due to the collaboration between the DOT Foundation – Organ Donation and Transplantation— a nonprofit organization founded by the City of Health, the City of Turin, the Piedmont Region, the University, and the Polytechnic — and the Reale Foundation, through the three-year ITT – InnovaTrapianto project in Turin, which aims to strengthen excellence in transplant medicine through the introduction of advanced technologies. By 2025, the project has already introduced new diagnostic tools and advanced systems for organ transport.
The DOT Foundation works every day to promote a culture of organ donation and support scientific research in this field. Because behind every transplant there is a choice—the choice made by someone who decided to donate.
On April 19, Damiano will be at the starting line of the Turin Half Marathon. Exactly one year after his transplant.
And he won’t be alone: running alongside him will be the doctors from Molinette Hospital who saved his life, including Dr. Matteo Giunta, who has been with him throughout his rehabilitation training.
The date is no coincidence: April 19, 2026, is National Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Day, established by ministerial decree and published in the Official Gazette. A day that, thanks to Damiano, will have a face this year—a steady stride on the streets of Turin, a number on his chest.
Damiano isn't setting his sights on the result. His goal is simply to be there.
“For me, getting back to running and competing in this race means coming full circle—a journey that began exactly one year ago.”
At Base Running, we organize races. We plan the routes, handle the logistics, set the start times, and arrange the aid stations. But stories like Damiano’s remind us why all of this really matters.
A race is a place where people feel alive again. Where things come full circle. Where a man with a new heart can start over exactly where he left off—on the road, with his shoes on, his breathing returning to normal.
As Livio Tranchida, general manager of Città della Salute, said, Damiano’s story shows that it is possible to return to a normal life after a transplant, thanks in part to sports—and it confirms the therapeutic value of physical activity.
We already knew that. But it’s always nice to hear it said like that.
See you on April 19.
