Sami's Lyme disease battle

Anyone who has ever met Sami Coates will tell you she is beautiful inside and out. Sami has many friends because when she meets people they instantly fall in love with her. Her gentle and caring nature makes it easy for her to befriend young and old. Her ability to throw herself into any activity in a carefree way endears her to people, especially her niece and nephews. Her smile is warm, genuine and contagious. When Sami is around you can't help but smile and be happy around her. Yet behind that smile and carefree spirit she suffers with the symptoms of her Lyme's disease. She hides it well and her kind nature always puts others first, often taking so much out of her she is barely able to function for the next day or two. Not many see her in that state, but believe me it is true and heartbreaking for her parents to see. She is often overwhelmed with fatigue, joint and muscle pain, foggy cognitive ability and many other symptoms. At the age of 15 Sami was competing at a national level in swimming, well on her way to achieving her dream of the Olympics. She fell ill with glandular fever and sadly never recovered. Over the years Sami struggled to achieve every day activities such as finishing school and working full time. It wasn't until 2015 Sami got diagnosed with Lyme's disease. Lyme's disease is a tick-born disease that once infected, has the ability to suppress the immune system and affect all organs in the body. No two Lyme patients are the same due to differing co-infections making it difficult to treat this invisible chronic illness. Since being diagnosed Sami has been through treatment regimes without success. Recently her specialist doctor and herself committed to taking further action and head over to Malaysia to undergo hyperthermia at Dr Radzi oncology and hyperthermia centre in Johor Bahru. Sami and her family would not ask for financial support under normal circumstances but due to Lyme's disease not being covered under Medicare or private health funds (Lyme's disease is not recognised in Australia) we are in need of support to get the much needed treatment offered only overseas. This page has been created to help our Sami travel to Malaysia in early March 2018 to undergo an intense 6 week treatment plan. Sami has been in contact with a number of patients who have returned from Malaysia with much success. Asking for monetary help from friends, family and strangers was our last resort. During Sami's life she has always wanted to give rather than receive. Now is the time to put pride aside and seek help of friends, family and the community to get our Sami better. Our goal is to reach the amount of $30,000 - this is the cost of two treatments in Malaysia - but every litte bit helps. We cannot begin to give our heartfelt thanks to those of you kind enough to donate. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We look forward to continuing to share her journey with you all over the months to come. *Written by her parents and close friend