Brescia, April 30, 2024 – A new waiting room in the entrance area to pediatric oncohematology at theSpedali Civili Hospital in Brescia was inaugurated today. The project, named “The Sea of Smiles,” was donated by the ODV association “Un sorriso per Matteo ed Ettore” thanks to the contribution of Fondazione Mediolanum, the event “Dal cuore…All’Adamello” and the support of ABE, and with the intervention of artist Silvio Irilli of OSPEDALI DIPINTI who transformed the waiting room into a bright seabed.

This new environment was born out of the experience of the families of Matteo Ventura and Ettore Pandolfi, who following the untimely death of their children due to cancer decided to come together to transform grief into something constructive, in order to give smiles to the little cancer patients admitted to the hospital; the new waiting room wants to remember Matteo and Ettore and above all to give a little magic to the children who will walk through those corridors.

Matteo was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2013, at the age of 6, and thus began a difficult journey of treatment in Pediatric Oncoematology at Spedali Civili di Brescia, which led to continuous admissions to the ward for a year and a half of treatment, which unfortunately proved futile.

Ettore was diagnosed with kidney cancer at the age of 2 1/2 years, in 2020, and he, too, began a long course of treatment that lasted more than two years, also in Pediatric Oncohematology at the Spedali Civili di Brescia,and even in his case, however, it was all in vain.

Matthew and Hector were second cousins, although they never knew each other since Hector was born after Matthew’s passing; but the parents wanted to unite, give each other strength, and remembering the difficult times and endless days spent in those hallways, they try daily with their association to alleviate as much as they can the suffering of these children.

They have experienced firsthand how little it takes for these little patients to turn a sad day into a special one, how nice it is to see their little eyes light up and how reflexively this brings some relief to their parents as well.