As such the Biaggio Signorelli Foundation will be hosting a 15-year Anniversary Tribute Gala Dinner, titled ‘An Evening of Pure Imagination’, on November 1 at Doltone House, White Bay Cruise Terminal, to raise funds to help find a cure for Mesothelioma or Asbestos cancer.
Mr Signorelli or ‘Bruce’ (who loved his Aussie name) hailed from Sicily before arriving here in the mid 1950s.
He joined his brothers in a greengrocer business before finding work producing television transformers and then opening his own business in Lakemba – Antonella’s Fruit Market, paying homage to his mother.
Mr Signorelli married Fina in 1967 and their three children, Nina, Paul and Anna Maria, were all educated in Lakemba and Bankstown.
In 1995, he moved into hospitality buying Doltone House in Sylvania Waters and then expanding to Pyrmont and San Souci, with Paul and his sisters about to establish a further site in Milperra, the former Deepwater Motor Boat Club.
Paul said his father did so much for charity, including supporting as many migrants as possible and always overcoming challenges but could not defeat cancer and his life was cut short at 71.
In his last days, Mr Signorelli whispered to his children: “They couldn’t help me but maybe you can do something to help save others.”
The family requested that instead of flowers, the over 3,000 mourners at his funeral make donations to the Sydney Cancer Centre Foundation.
But that was only the beginning of their determination to fulfil his dying wish, establishing the Biaggio Signorelli Foundation and already raising over $1 million for the Asbestos and Dust Diseases Research Institute in Concord with a lab there recently named in his honour.
Info and tickets: biaggiosignorelli.org.au.
