SOCIAL AND HEALTH
Gigi Ghirotti told the story of his battle against a terrible illness, until his death. Fifty years ago. He investigated, reported, and wrote books on some of the most diverse figures and topics.
He began his career in 1945 at Il Giornale di Vicenza, then moved to La Stampa (1950–1958), L’Europeo (1958–1960), and once again to La Stampa (1960–1974).
He distinguished himself through his journalistic investigations into justice, the mafia, Sardinian banditry, and the major civil and social issues of the time, which led to books such as Italia mia benché (1963), Il magistrato (1963), Mitra e Sardegna (1968), Rumor (1970), and Da Olimpia a Casa mia. In 1972, when he was diagnosed with a malignant tumor, he did not surrender and fought against the disease for two years.
He recounted his experience as a patient among patients in eleven memorable reports published in La Stampa, later collected in the book Lungo viaggio nel tunnel della malattia (A Long Journey Through the Tunnel of Illness). He defined himself as “an unwilling correspondent inside the tunnel of illness and hospitalization,” a chronicler of suffering within suffering, a patient among the patients of the four public hospitals where he was admitted.
On the evening of May 27, 1973, Ghirotti appeared on RAI TV’s second channel, in a hospital corridor, interviewing doctors and fellow patients. It was the first of two historic television investigations, broadcast within what has been considered the very first scientific popularization program in Italian television history, titled Orizzonti della Scienza e della Tecnica. Eight million Italians were glued to their screens.
In 1973, President of the Republic Giovanni Leone sent Ghirotti a telegram in which he wrote: “I listened with profound emotion to your television broadcast and I wish to send you an expression of my admiration for your edifying testimony of courage and serenity…”
The second and final television broadcast aired on the evening of June 4, 1974. This time, Ghirotti appeared with a more gaunt face, deeper wrinkles, and a more fatigued voice.
One of his statements remains strikingly powerful to this day, expressing his high ethical vision of the journalistic profession: “If a journalist personally goes through an experience between life and death and then does not recount it, I would say that he has understood nothing—neither of his craft, nor of his duties as a citizen.”
The respect for that “helpless patient”, of whom Ghirotti wrote in his last unfinished article—whose dignity must be preserved until the very end—is summed up in these words: “What matters, both in life and in the face of death, is not to feel abandoned and alone.”
Ghirotti died on July 17, 1974. On May 5, 1975, in Rome, through the initiative of his wife along with a group of friends and colleagues, the National Gigi Ghirotti Committee was founded. On December 18, 1975, in the Capitoline Hill, in the presence of the Head of State, the Committee was formally presented to the Italian public. In 1984, it was officially recognized by Presidential Decree as a non-profit organization of social utility.
A fundraising campaign launched by Specchio dei Tempi contributed to the start of the National Committee, which allocated resources to scholarships for the training of deserving young doctors who later distinguished themselves in Italy and abroad.
In 2002, the Committee became the National Gigi Ghirotti Foundation. For nearly fifty years, it has provided free services to cancer patients and their families, offering guidance, assistance, and psychological support.
Specchio dei Tempi continues to honor Ghirotti’s memory by raising funds to support research.
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