Help Sam Kick Cancer's Butt!

Hey everyone! My name is Vanessa Mutch, and I've started this Go Fund Me to hopefully help someone super important to me, and to many others.

Samantha Chomos is one of my dearest friends, and bonus, she happens to be my sister-in-law too! Sam is engaged to my youngest brother, Austin. Austin and Sam have been together for 8 years, and got engaged in September of 2020. In February of 2022, they welcomed the sweetest little girl in all the land into their family - Rylee Anne.

Sam first started having stomach issues when she was pregnant with Rylee. What followed was a rough few months when Rylee was born 5 weeks early. When Rylee was 4 months old, Sam was admitted to the hospital for a blood transfusion due to dangerously low hemoglobin. She had an emergency upper endoscopy and it was discovered that she had 3 bleeding ulcers, caused by an H. Pylori infection.

Awhile later she had a follow up endoscopy - the H. Pylori infection was gone, and the ulcers were healing. She also had a cancer biopsy at that time which came back negative.

However unfortunately, Sam's stomach pain and anemia continued over the next 7 months. She shrugged it off as most likely being the ulcers flaring up.

Sam saw her doctor in early March of this year with a strange pain in her upper right abdomen, and after some concerning blood work results, her doctor ordered another emergency endoscopy.

The biopsy from this endoscopy revealed that there was a 9cm tumour in her stomach - positive for aggressive adenocarcinoma. This news shook Sam, Austin, and everyone who knows and loves her to their core.

After a CT scan and an exploritory laparoscopic surgery, we were all happy to receive the news that there is no cancer spread outside of the stomach.

So now Sam begins this tough journey of taking the steps needed to be able to fight this cancer, and get back to living a full life as a mom, a partner, a daughter, daughter-in-law, auntie, sister, granddaughter, cousin, niece and friend.

She has begun the first of the needed 4 rounds of FLOT chemotherapy, which will be followed by a total gastrectomy (stomach removal), followed by another 4 rounds of FLOT chemo.

Because one of the possible side effects of chemo is permanent neuropathy, along with the many other side effects, Sam is unable to work in her career as a massage therapist at this time. She is also unable to work in close proximity to people due to the risk of infection.

To find out at 33 years old that you have an aggressive form of cancer is incredibly difficult, but Sam has handled it with an immense amount of courage and grace. She would say that she's not brave - she's just doing what anyone would do in her situation, in order to save her life and be able to watch sweet Rylee grow up. My reply to her is this - "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear." (Franklin D Roosevelt)

We are raising money for Sam, Austin and Rylee because our desire is that Sam would be able to solely focus on getting better, and that as a family, some of the worry and stress about money could be eliminated during this time.

These funds would be used towards bills, groceries, caring for Rylee, and possibly towards Sam's medications if their benefits are not able to cover the full amount.

I know so many people love Sam, Austin and Rylee and have been looking for a practical way to help! I hope this can be that opportunity.