CBC Radio – Sammy Basso lived longer than anyone else with his disease, but his death at the age 28 still came as a shock to those who knew and loved him.
“We all knew that Sammy had a terrible circumstance that was not going to allow him to live a full life. But he was so vibrant. He was so alive. He was so engaged,” Dr. Francis Collins, Basso’s friend and colleague, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. “I was stunned.”
Basso, a molecular biologist from Italy, died on Oct. 5. He was the longest known survivor of progeria, a rare genetic disease that causes rapid aging. Many people who have it don’t make it past their teens.
He dedicated his life to studying and raising awareness about progeria in the hopes that future generations would not have to go through what he did.
Those who knew him say he was not only committed to the cause, but also funny and kind, a brilliant conversationalist, the life of a party, and someone who extolled the kind of joie-de-vivre that comes from knowing all too well that every second counts.
“I like my life as it is, because it’s my life. I have my friends, my parents, my family. These are the most important things,” he said in a 2016 interview with the Catholic publication Aleteia.
“Progeria is a small part of my life, because it only affects the body.”
Born in 1995 in Schio, in the northern Italian region of Veneto, Basso was diagnosed with progeria at the age of two.
His friends say he packed more life into his 28 years than most people every do. He travelled the world, hobnobbing with celebrities and politicians, and even once meeting the Pope …
