Sam Street has been told it will ‘be a miracle’ if he lives more than nine months
A dad who had just moved into a new home with his family suddenly shouted ‘ring an ambulance’ and hasd to be rushed to hospital – where he was told he had months to live. Sam Street says he is now determined to marry his long-term partner and take his family on one last holiday.
Sam was initially believed to have been having a stroke just days after moving into a new home in Kent this month. But when he got to hospital, doctors diagnosed terminal cancer.
Debbie, Sam’s partner of 13 years, says the diagnosis came just six weeks after doctors had classed his skin cancer as stage two.
“It all began five years ago,” she said. “He had a melanoma on his back removed and then it was all clear after that. Then about a year and a half ago he got another melanoma removed and it came back that it was in his lymph nodes. They took out a melanoma off his calf and then did a wider local incision to make sure it hadn’t spread to any further cells. They found out it had gone into his lymph nodes in his groin, as well as into his chest.”
Sam underwent further surgery to remove another melanoma from his chest around two months ago. But on July 4, just one day after the family moved to Newington, where Sam grew up, his condition suddenly deteriorated. Debbie said: “When we went to finish off unpacking he started screaming ‘ring an ambulance, ring an ambulance’.”
Sam was taken to Maidstone Hospital, where he later had a seizure. An MRI scan revealed the cancer had spread to his brain. On July 6, Debbie says Sam was told he had up to nine months to live.
“That is the average, it could be shorter than that,” she explained. “They said it would be a miracle if it was longer than that. He was on stage two, and then all of a sudden within the space of about six weeks, it was stage four in the brain.”
The pair have four children between them – Freddie, 21, Tommy, 18, Gracie, 11, and Nancy, 10. Sam’s sister-in-law Sally has set up a GoFundMe to help cover medical expenses, household costs and special memories while Sam undergoes treatment.
After being told he had months to live, Sam told Debbie he wanted to marry her as soon as possible.
“Sam’s always wanted to get married but I’ve been one of the ones who said ‘we don’t need to get married, we’re going to be together forever so we don’t need to do that’,” Debbie said. “But after he was told the news a few weeks ago he straight away said he wanted to get married, that was his first thing that he wanted to do. His mum wanted to see him get married, and then sadly she passed, and he’s the only one out of his brother and sisters that’s not married so it’s just been something he’s wanted to do.”
Sam also decided he wants to take his family on a holiday together, which will likely be Cornwall as “he loves it there”.
Debbie added: “He really wants to go to Jamaica but we’re holding back on that because when we get out there, he may not survive that flight. That’s the reality and the scary part of it.
“He’s obviously devastated. He doesn’t want to leave his children. He’s scared, he’s quite petrified, but there’s nothing else we can do. We could sit there and cry and mope but we just want to enjoy what we’ve got and carry on for the time being until the time comes when we have to say our goodbyes.”
