Samantha’s Bucket List

Samantha has indeed been put through a lot medically during her life so far. She was born with a rare type of birth mark on her cheek and while growing up they never suspected it of being anything more than a birth mark. In 2016 they diagnosed it as a cellular blue neavous with subcontinuous changes and a very low chance of turning cancerous. With these new uncertain findings, Sam needed to start getting descaling done. This was essentially an invasive surgery into her face, to break down the tumor and make it smaller for short periods of time. This would offer temporary relief of extreme pressure headaches and discomfort, that is until the tumour would continue to aggressively grow back.

These surgeries were regularily happening as soon as every 6 months at a time. You’d think it would affect Sam’s way of living but she always fought through the process and would have a smile on her face . Every time the surgeons do a de-bulking procedure, they send the pieces of tumour away to be tested as a precaution. She went for a “regular” de-bulking in March 2024 & In April 2024 her surgeon called and gave us the life changing news that the ever growing facial tumour had indeed turned cancerous.

After our local Cancer center reviewed and agreed with the labs discoveries, it forced us to start planning treatment in June 2024. Immunotherapy was the route we chose as a team, as it had a lot of positive outcomes for others with this type of case. Sam’s first official treatment was July 19th, 2024 - A double dose of immunotherapy. She was able to fight through 3 of the treatments when she fell extremely ill and had to be hospitalized. After a scary week in the hospital of about every test in the book, it was found out that immunotherapy had completely took out her Adrenal gland and her hormone system (the 1% chance).

With this information, Samantha now has no choice but to live on pills for thyroid, cortisol and many steroids to support her immune system for the rest of her life .

We attended a Surgical consultation and unfortunately it was not the result we expected. The pigment had grown and was invading her gums, the cancer is now visible on the inside of her mouth . This told us that surgery isnt an option as it would be incredibly invasive & every inch of Sam’s life would change. She would completely lose her nose, one of her eyes, all of the teeth on one side of her mouth including the roof her mouth. It’s a very hard pill to swallow to also learn that even if we considered to proceed with this procedure, there is only a 20% chance she would live to be cancer free.

Sam has bravely decided that she wants to smile and live her life to the fullest going forward, no matter what the time frame is. She has even recently taken on a volunteer management roll with a local dog rescue, she is always trying to help others.

Her extreme passion for horses is something she grips to tightly. It brings her nothing but happiness and she is wanting to get back into competing at horse shows. This is something we are hoping & planning to accomplish in 2025. Riding in horse shows is at the top of her list, but Sam also has an exciting bucket list of things she wants to do and experience before cancer starts to hold her back.

My name is Dalton, I’m Samanthas Fiancé, I understand that everyone has a life to live and my biggest goal now is to provide my beautiful future wife with the adventurous life that she deserves . I will fight to do absolutely anything that I possibly can, whether that is doing dishes, cleaning the house or finding a way to get her competing again at a horse show.

I’m reaching out to all of you, hoping our story touches you & that you also would like to help Samantha live her dream life while she has the opportunity to. Anyone who has met Sam knows what a bright light she is, she smiles her way through everything . She truly deserves this. Horse show expenses are extremely high, but please consider helping in any way you can. Every single $1.00 will be appreciated from the bottom of my heart & will give Sam the ability to follow her dream.