Mastella: "I have cancer and I’m afraid of dying alone"

“I have a fear. I’m afraid of dying alone. Memories aren’t enough. And I also pray that this doesn’t happen.” Clemente Mastella he confides this in an interview with Corriere della Sera. The former minister, after announcing during a celebration in Basilica of the Madonna delle Grazie of Beneventothe city of which he is mayor, that he is ill, confirms: “I have a tumor”.

“I realized I had it for quite some time, but I was only diagnosed recently. When I found out I took my breath away”, says the veteran politician who, after going through “unrepeatable seasons”, explains that he looks at his family members with an even stronger attachment to life. “Even if you have faith, you understand that they are the ones who ignite an even stronger attachment to life. An almost morbid attachment, I dare to confess.”

Illness? “È giusto parlarne”

In another interview, a RepublicMastella returns to the decision to make the disease public. “Sì, è giusto parlarne. Ed è giusto umanizzare. Politicians are too often viewed negatively. We are witnessing a sort of a priori offensive, as if we were all criminals. Of course, we have committed our sins. But we are not immortal, we are human.”

And he adds: “In the phone calls I’m receiving, in the messages, in the words of the people I meet on the street, I almost feel like I’m living in advance what it will be like when I’m no longer here. I hope it happens as late as possible, of course, but I don’t know. But I understand that, by putting everything on the scales, I’ve done more good than bad in my life.”

Mastella’s announcement

The mayor of Benevento, a former minister and long-time parliamentarian, had publicly revealed the disease during his speech at the celebrations in honor of the Madonna delle Grazie.

“Pray for me too, I’m sick too,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion, as reported by Benevento News24