It was during my flight to the 2021 Tour de France when I first started to feel bad. I had back and belly pain, feelings that weren’t common, and during the first two weeks of the Tour I’d wake up in the night with pain everywhere. I went for a scan on the second rest day in Andorra, and I found out that there were some black spots in my stomach and elsewhere in my body. I drove home to Milan and went straight to hospital. In early August it was confirmed that I had lymphoma. It was not a happy moment, of course, but the doctors told me it was treatable with a good possibility of success. I started treatment in September with chemotherapy and immunotherapy, and after three months I was already in remission. But that’s when the issues really started.
From April 2022 to January 2024, I was essentially positive for Covid the whole time, and I contracted pneumonia seven times, as well as other different viruses and bacteria which affected my body. My immune system was barely functioning. I was working a little bit, albeit mostly remotely, and secured the co-title sponsorship of Lidl, but in October 2023 things got really bad.
By December 2023, I weighed 58kg – I normally weigh 78kg – and all of my organs were locked up; none of them were working anymore. I couldn’t breathe independently so was on an oxygen mask 24/7, and my liver was so intoxicated from all the different medications that I was almost yellow like a Simpson. I had no muscles and wasn’t able to stand up because of all the cortisone and medications. I was allowed home for one week at Christmas, but it was more like, ‘Luca, this will be your last time with your family’.
To be clear, in December 2023 I was planning everything as if I wasn’t going to make it and I was struggling to look to the future. At that moment, it didn’t look like there would be any more treatment available, and the quality of life I had at the time – lying down on a bed for 40 days at a time followed by a week at home – was not pleasant for anyone. It was stressful, and my family were suffering way more. I have two adult kids aged 26 and 21, and seeing the sadness in their eyes hurt – but they were a reason to keep pushing, to keep fighting. When you see that love, you need to give love back.
I returned to hospital after Christmas – I spent 160 nights in hospital beds in 10 months – and some different treatments started to work a little bit and I could breathe by…