Sam needs our help - AGAIN. It's ROUND TWO.

Many (or most) of you know of Samantha's fight against Hodgkin's Lymphoma. So many of you helped Sam and Jennifer through last year's chemotherapy and the seemingly unsurmountable pile of bills. We are all so grateful for your love and support. We were able to meet our goal of $20,000 through so many incredibly generous donations. This enabled Sam and Jen to pay for most of her treatment, even after meeting a high deductible.

Unfortunately, we found out in the Spring that the cancer was not defeated through twelve rounds of chemotherapy. A PET scan showed cancer had re-developed in her chest wall. This is "refractory Hodgkins Lymphoma," which means it's not responding to traditional treatment.

Now it's ROUND TWO for Sam and Jen. This round started in June with numerous rounds of "traditional" chemo medications, and now an intensive therapy is underway. Sam is being aggressively treated at Memorial Sloane Kettering in Manhattan with a very intensive schedule of chemotherapy. It's so intensive that it will destroy her immune system. This is the only way to ensure that "hidden" cancer cells can be eradicated.

She had Stem cells removed and preserved prior to this chemotherapy and will require a Stem cell transplant after the chemotherapy is complete. This will allow her immune system to rebuild following its disintegration. She will then have the immune system of a newborn, requiring isolation, masking and extreme caution. She will need to stay in Manhattan for continued treatment/evaluation for at least two additional weeks after the stem cell transplant.

She will require re-vaccination in January of 2025 with all the vaccines all over again (MMR, Diptheria, Polio, HepB...the works.)

In the meantime, Sam and Jen are being housed at Memorial Sloane Kettering so that they don't have to travel from Manhattan to New Jersey twice a day, and she needs to be close to the hospital for constant monitoring.

All this comes with a price...unfortunately, a hefty price. Their insurance deductible re-set again this month, meaning that the bills are again piling up with a minimum $15,000 out-of-pocket cost, with some of the procedures/bills/outpatient costs not necessarily even covered. There are also costs associated with transportation, parking, meals and more...all of these in Manhattan are ridiculously high.

We are going to do whatever we can to help them through this time, but we can't do it alone. We need our team to come through again. Please share this with those you know, those who know Sam or Jen, and even those who don't.

We believe that Sam will beat cancer. Sam believes that she will beat cancer. It's so much easier to fight when you're not consumed by financial worry. Thanks to all of you.