The Caprotti family: my maternal grandfather Guido Caprotti Venosta, c. 1970s?

My grandfather Guido Venosta, the more introverted of the Venosta brothers, graduated from Cambridge and Pavia and worked all his life as an executive at Pirelli; in 1966 he became involved in the Italian Association for Cancer Research (today the Italian Foundation for Cancer Research - AIRC), which he transformed into Italy's largest private funding body in the fight against cancer. Initiatives that have made the history of fundraising for the non-profit world, such as the 'Health Oranges' and the 'Research Azaleas' (...), were born thanks to him.

The Caprotti family: Carla Fossati Bellani Venosta, 1958

Carla Fossati Bellani Venosta (1924 - 2019), was my grandfather Guido Venosta's second wife. She was an internationally renowned designer. In 2000 he promoted the establishment of the 'European Foundation Guido Venosta, the man against cancer' (today 'Fondazione Guido Venosta'), whose aim was and is, 'to honour Guido Venosta's memory and borrow his experience, to promote and contribute to raising public education towards the highest cultural ideals and solidarity'.

The Caprotti family’s ancestors: maternal great-grandparents, Giuseppe Venosta and Argia Neri Venosta, grandfather Guido’s parents

Giuseppe Venosta (1880 - 1939) was an engineer who worked all his life at Pirelli until his death from cancer, a disease that was incurable at the time, of which his wife Argia was also a victim, some ten years after him. His son Guido, my grandfather, many years later became very involved in the fight against the disease that had killed his father and, a decade later, his mother as well.