Please help us help Sam Shields-Chatelain

Hi my name is Alex and I’m fundraising to try to help Sam Shields-Chatelain and her young family as they embark on a really difficult journey. Sam is a hard working mum of four who is loved deeply by her mum, her husband, her kids and her family and friends. Like most of us, the everyday is a battle while she juggles work and family and tries to provide the best life she can for her much loved family.

I’d like to preserve Sam’s privacy as much as possible but in a nutshell - Sam had experienced increasingly severe symptoms for a number of years and sought help from a range of medical professionals but was dismissed and told that she didn’t require intervention. Recently, her situation worsened to the point where a doctor agreed to act and performed the hysterectomy she has been pleading with doctors to give her for several years. Sam was so happy to finally be heard and excited to have the surgery which she thought would involve a recovery period and then a bright future, free from the agony that had been her life for years.

Sadly the outcome of what turned out to be a much more major surgery than anyone anticipated is that Sam has been diagnosed with an advanced form of Leiomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. She has a challenging time ahead of her and will need to focus everything she has on it. It’s very early days on this life changing journey she wasn’t expecting to take and she has already faced some big expenses she also wasn’t expecting- eg the MRI which is the first step and absolutely necessary so that doctors can work out what to do next is $700 and there is no Medicare rebate! That’s only the beginning. And as we all know, the world keeps spinning and bills still need to be paid. We can’t heal Sam but what we can do is try to alleviate some of the incredible stress she is under by helping her with the bills over the next few months so she doesn’t have to think about them while she fights the fight of her life.

Please, if you are in a position to donate even a small amount, it would mean the world. All funds raised will go towards helping Sam and her family forget about the day to day stresses so they can focus on getting through the nightmare they’ve found themselves living.

Thank you for your support!