Rossana Magnotta's Fight Against Lyme Disease and Hope

“I’ll go when I go. But not yet. I’m not done.”

The Untold Journey

There are moments in life that redefine everything, that split existence into a clear "before" and "after." For Rossana Di Zio Magnotta, that moment came when her husband, Gabe Magnotta, the man she built a wine empire with, began showing signs of a mysterious illness that would eventually rob him of his ability enjoy his life to the fullest - especially his passion and love for the outdoors.

"He went from a six-foot-two, 240-pound man to someone who could hardly walk," Rossana tells me, her voice steady but weighted with memory. "He couldn't talk. He couldn't write. He couldn't even eat. Everything was being attacked by that organism."

The organism was Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, though they wouldn't get that diagnosis until much later. By then, it was too late.

THE SILENT EPIDEMIC

We're sitting in her office at Magnotta Winery, surrounded by photographs and awards that trace the remarkable journey of a woman who transformed a small wine business into one of Canada's largest private winemakers. But today, we're not here to discuss vintages or business acumen. We're here to talk about what happens when life shatters, and how someone finds the courage to not only keep going but to transform personal tragedy into purpose.

Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness, remains one of medicine's most controversial and misunderstood conditions. Current diagnostic tests are woefully inadequate, with false negatives common. This testing gap means countless patients suffer without proper diagnosis or treatment.

"Public health has a test that is faulty," Rossana explains, her diagnostician's precision evident. "So many Canadians have either passed away or have been very ill, and they've had to search for answers. It's been very difficult for them."

For Gabe, every test conducted in Canada came back negative, despite his rapidly deteriorating health. It wasn't until they traveled to Germany and the U.S. that they received confirmation of what Rossana had already begun to suspect.

"I spent my life, whatever I had in my time, trying to save that man," she says quietly. "And I failed because at the end, , even though he was improving, he had a sudden heart attack.”

Years later, medical research would confirm what Rossana had already learned the hardest way possible: Lyme carditis, inflammation of the heart caused by the Lyme bacteria, can lead to sudden cardiac events.

"If we had caught it early, we would have been able to save him. This is an infection," she emphasizes, comparing it to strep throat that, if left untreated, can attack the heart.

WHEN TEARS DRY IN SECRET

What the public didn't see during this period was the private toll on Rossana, the woman who had to simultaneously run a public company, care for a gravely ill husband, and hold her family together while everything threatened to crumble.

"I would leave work and drive... sometimes I didn't even know where I was driving," she reveals, emotion breaking through her composed exterior. "I'd just get on the 407 to go east, and I would cry and be crying in the car because I knew that when I got home, I had to make sure the tears were dry and my eyes were not red."

This invisible burden, the performance of strength when

falling apart inside, is one many caregivers recognize but rarely speak about.

"My husband would know," she continues. "He recognized that I was in pain, and it broke his heart, the fact that he felt like he was a burden. So I would go into my basement and I would cry because I had to cry. I couldn't keep it all in."

The woman the public saw, commanding boardrooms and navigating the complexities of the wine industry, was simultaneously fighting a private battle that was "tearing me apart," as she puts it. "It was debilitating. I don't even know how I survived it."

FROM GRIEF TO PURPOSE

After Gabe's passing, Rossana found herself at a crossroads familiar to anyone who has lost their anchor: What now?

"After days and months, a long time of crying, the loss of my husband, it's almost like I didn't have any more breath to breathe anymore 'cause I lost the person that was part of my life," she reflects.

The answer came gradually, emerging from her grief like a vine from seemingly barren soil: she would turn her considerable business acumen, scientific background, and newfound understanding of Lyme disease toward solving the diagnostic problem that had contributed to her husband's death.

“Deal with one thing at a time. That’s how you make it through the impossible.”

In 2012, she founded the G. Magnotta Foundation for Vector-Borne Diseases, and in 2017, she established the G. Magnotta Lyme Disease Research Lab at the University of Guelph with an initial gift. To date, she has invested eight years and over $4.6 million into developing what has eluded the medical community: a reliable diagnostic test for active Lyme infection.

"Nobody wants to tackle this problem because it's very expensive to do it, and notoriously difficult to isolate and grow in laboratory conditions," she explains, describing the technical challenges of working with Borrelia.

But where others saw insurmountable obstacles, Rossana saw a necessary mission. Her expertise as a diagnostician (she worked in hospital laboratories in her twenties), her experience battling government bureaucracy during her wine industry days, and her intimate understanding of Lyme's devastating effects uniquely positioned her for this fight.

THE UNIMAGINABLE SEQUEL

Then came the loss that Rossana says outweighed even the devastating absence of her beloved husband: the death of her son, Joseph.

Before his passing, in honour of his father, Joseph Magnotta created a line of philanthropic wines that would ultimately lead to the contribution of over $500,000 for the G. Magnotta Foundation.

$.50 cents from every bottle sold is donated to the G. Magnotta Foundation, which in turn fuels the necessary research. After Joseph's tragic passing, Rossana continued to expand and feature these wines in honour of both men. They have since become a core line of wines for Magnotta.

This is the essence of Rossana's approach to grief and purpose: honoring what's been lost by building something meaningful from the broken pieces.

“Every day I pray: ‘God, give me one more day to finish what I came here to do.”

A TEST OF HOPE

The G. Magnotta Lyme Disease Research Lab is now on the cusp of a breakthrough, a DNA-based diagnostic test that will revolutionize how Lyme disease is detected and treated globally.

"We're using DNA, and we're thinking outside of the box," Rossana explains.

This isn't just a scientific achievement; it's a legacy built from love and loss, one that could prevent countless others from experiencing what Gabe and so many Lyme patients have endured.

To me, legacy means being able to say that when I'm gone, it was through hard work and courage that this woman made a difference. She witnessed it firsthand, felt it deeply, and understood it completely. And now, she’s given that strength back to us - so we can live our lives better because of it.

THE HUMAN TOUCH

Throughout our conversation, Rossana returns repeatedly to what she believes has gotten lost in both business and healthcare: genuine human connection.

"Don't be afraid to reach out to people. Don't be afraid to touch people because their pain is real," she advises. "And that hug or that handshake or that word or that smile or that 'I understand' comment, it means so much to people out there."

This philosophy, that behind every disease, every business transaction, every human interaction is a person deserving of compassion, has guided her through building both a wine empire and a foundation poised to change how we understand and diagnose Lyme disease.

"In business, a lot of people don't really connect anymore," she observes. "They don't connect with their eyes. They don't connect with their hands. They don't connect with their words. Everything is like fast, fast, fast... There's no human touch, and it's killing, I think, business, but more importantly, this not touching and not communicating with people on a sincere level is just drowning the world."

THE ADVICE SHE GIVES

When asked what advice she'd offer someone facing overwhelming loss while trying to maintain their responsibilities, Rossana shares the wisdom earned through her own darkest moments.

"The only way that I can deal with all these things hitting me... is the ability to separate all the components and deal with them one at a time," she explains. "Because if you have them all rushing to your head, you fall apart."

She also emphasizes the importance of accepting help, something many strong, self-reliant people struggle with, particularly in their most vulnerable moments.

“Don’t be afraid to touch people, emotionally, physically, spiritually. Their pain is real.”

"You cannot do it all yourself," she says emphatically. "You have to open up to good friends and family, and you have to be able to trust them. Because if you try to do it all yourself, you will end up doing what I did at the beginning, which was crying in the car... because I didn't know how to handle it anymore."

A PRAYER FOR TIME

Today, Rossana continues leading Magnotta Winery while driving the foundation's research forward. Her daughter Alessia now serves as a director of the foundation, positioned to carry the torch when the time comes.

But Rossana isn't ready to pass that torch just yet.

"Every day I pray to God that I will be granted a new day to continue to champion the many years of important work that we at the foundation have been doing to improve the diagnotics that will lead to better treatment protocols and will bring change to how Lyme Disease patients get tested and treated in Canada and all over the world.”

There's an urgency in her voice, not panic, but purpose. The kind that comes from understanding both how fragile life is and how powerful determination can be.

THE LIGHTHOUSE EFFECT

Rossana Di Zio Magnotta stands at the intersection of extraordinary success and profound loss. She has built a wine empire respected across the country. She has endured the kind of personal tragedies that would crush many spirits. And she has channeled both her business acumen and personal pain into a mission that could save countless lives.

Like the best vintners, she understands that sometimes the most challenging growing conditions produce the most remarkable results. That resilience isn't about avoiding hardship but about transforming it into something meaningful.

"I'm very lucky to have a supporting family," she reflects, acknowledging the network that has helped her sustain both her businesses and her mission. "I'm very lucky to have my people here at work, everyone at the winery. All my employees, they're all very committed to Lyme disease. They lost their co-founder here to it."

As our conversation ends, I'm struck by something she said earlier about curiosity being the driving force in her life. It seems fitting for someone who has refused to accept the inadequacies of current Lyme diagnostics, who has questioned every "impossible" and "too difficult" that stood in her way.

The words she chose for a plaque at Humber River Hospital's children's outpatient department. A quote from perhaps best capture her philosophy: "As you grow from infancy to young adulthood, may your path be filled with kindness and love, curiosity and spirit, courage and resolve. Remember, as A.A. Milne’s wrote, “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think."

In Rossana's case, those words aren't just inspirational platitudes. They're the principles she's lived by, principles that have allowed her to transform tremendous personal loss into a legacy of hope, not just for Lyme patients, but for anyone who has ever faced the seemingly impossible and wondered how to go on.

Sometimes, it seems, our greatest light emerges from our darkest moments. And sometimes, one person's refusal to accept things as they are becomes the catalyst for change that benefits countless others.

Want to be part of the change? Join us this November at the Gala for Lyme Hope, a night to honour love, loss, and the legacy being built to save lives. Details and tickets at gmagnottafoundation.com