Samantha

Hi! My name is Erin, and Samantha has been one of my best friends for more than fifteen years. I’m reaching out to you to help Sam and her family during this devastating time in their life.

Anybody that knows Sam would describe her as loyal, a caretaker at heart, a nurturer, and will always be there for her friends and family at a drop of a hat. As an independent woman, Sam hates asking for help but the time has come for us to rally around her as she navigates cancer treatments while being a mom to her gorgeous 3 year old daughter, a loving wife to Andrew, and a working woman. She is fiercely loyal to all her friends. And now it is our turn to let her lean on us. She needs our help!

Samantha’s story started in Feb. 2020 for a routine appendix surgery. It was then that doctors found a cancerous tumor, a rare type of cancer, one that had spread throughout her abdomen. She had surgery, where they removed her gall bladder, spleen, omentum, and a third of her colon; they then washed her abdominal cavity with hot chemo (a 10 hour surgery). She spent 13 days in the hospital recovering.

This seemed to work, and she was cancer free for two years. But, in the fall of 2022, a CT scan showed that the cancer had returned. When the oncological surgeon opened her up to remove the cancer, he discovered that there was too much disease, and he couldn’t do anything. He gave Samantha two years to live.

But Sam has a young daughter to live for, and she and her husband Andrew searched for treatment, which they found in Pittsburgh. A doctor there deals exclusively with this rare cancer (fewer than 1,000 cases diagnosed a year in the country). He performs surgery several times a week with people from all over the country and Canada. He has taken on Samantha’s case and is willing to do surgery to save her life. She must wait until April or May to let her body heal from the previous surgery. This operation will be difficult and will involve a long recovery. Andrew will go with her for moral support and will be staying there as well. This is out of network for their insurance and will be a costly endeavor. They will both miss work and will face enormous medical expenditures. They will need the financial and emotional support of their relatives, friends, and community behind them. Please consider supporting Sam in her fight against cancer.