Cosimo was 22 at the moment of his injury. He gave up his high School studies to start working in construction following the premature death of his father in 2004, as this was the only way to support his mother and the 13 year old sister. Last year he decided to carve out the time to attend the evening classes of a Professional school for Technicians, but he never left his true passion for rugby and for his team, whom he always regarded as a second family. His passion for rugby left a mark in Cosimo's life, for better or worse.

On Sunday a november sunday, Cosimo's dream of keep on playing with his friends was brutally interrupted ten minutes into the "Serie C" Tuscany tournement game against Pistoia club. He fell to the ground during a scrum, owing to a freak accident not caused by any player of the two teams. He was assisted by medical staff immediately and taken to the Traumatologic Orthopedic centre in Florence, where he had a critical operation on his cervical vertebras. The 7 hour operation was successful. Now it's up to Cosimo to give as much as possible and to us, as usual, to support him.

Cosimo is now quadriplegic and lives on a wheelchair, but his smile never faded and with the typical strenght of a rugby player he faced his long stay in Careggi Hospital. On our side we tried to help his family starting a fund raising campaign that due to the generosity of hundreds of people who send their money on the bank account "Amici di Alessandro Cosimo" held by Cosimo's mom with IBAN IT 23 L 06030 10701 000046727815 gave Cosimo and his family the chance to focus all their attenion just on recovery as much is possible. Therefore, thanking all of you, the only frustrations for Ciccio were the poor results of Spezia Rugby...thing that he definetely couldn't stand! We tried our best, be he didn't pay attention..."Either you win, either you will not come visit me!"

Hopefully we found someone special paying visit to Cosimo in our behaviour...thanking the incredible support of all the rugby world (and not only) that gathered around Cosimo, the pass-the-word activity of everybody who got informed of the situation and thank to the great heart that comes out in moment of need, the head coah of Italian Rugby Team, Nick Mallett, went to Careggi...the only problem is that nobody knew about his visit and we almost lost Ciccio on a heart attack!

Then spring came and the first real visit out of the hospital came along, with old time friends, family and volunteers from the hospital. Cosimo's smile is contagious, his moral strenght is the first source of energy for everybody and guess where has been the very first official day out of the hospital? In Prato to watch Spezia Rugby's match! Unfortunately we lost, but seeing Ciccio on the pitch...well, it has been amazing!

Finally summer came and Cosimo started visiting his hometown more often, thanks to La Spezia mayority that in very short time finded an available apartment to satisfy the new needs of Cosimo and his family. Lunches and dinners took place almost every week and the very first has been in Cadimare (SP) for the very famous Mussels Fair. Click here to see some picture of that night.

By the end of 2009 Cosimo is finally back home, ready to face his new life with his incredible smile that all of you helped to keep alive. As soon as he realized what we all started during his stay at the hospital he got incredibly happy and decided to contribute in person to the activities of the association, to help turn it in something that through him could help other people in dramatic needs.

To understand what the new president Cosimo has in mind...well just take a look at the website!