Sam’s Story

Sam’s Story

Sam was a real homebody. Much more comfortable being at home surrounded by his animals and family than anywhere else. Devoted to his mum, Julie, he had a quirky sense of humour and made his family laugh often. He experimented with his hair, highlighting it, spending ages straightening it until it was just right! He had an ambition to study hairdressing.  

He had always been well – never really ill in his life until everything changed in 2023. At the age of just 24, he started to feel unwell and one morning he had gone downstairs to get a drink when his mum, Julie, heard a sudden bang. Rushing to him, she found he had collapsed.  

Julie recounted: 

“I called an ambulance. They could not work out what was happening. He was taken for blood tests and that was when they confirmed that he had cancer. It was only then that he told me he had found a lump in his testicle. It turned out the lump had been there for seven months.

“He hadn’t said anything. He had googled it and thought it was something else. By the time he was rushed to hospital, the cancer was at stage 4. He was breathless and struggling. They kept him in hospital that first weekend and gave him oxygen to help.” 

Sam then underwent further tests and doctors confirmed the cancer had spread to his lungs. Chemotherapy was started and at first Sam was doing well, but then complications began.  

Julie explains: 

“His platelets kept going really low which was serious. It meant that he could not have as much chemotherapy as we had hoped.  He got such bad mouth ulcers that he could not eat and his weight dropped. He caught Covid as his immunity was so bad. He got a terrible rash. Once he was home he had chemo every 3-4 weeks, but it had to be managed due to his immunity.” 

After this Sam was in and out of different hospitals at different times. By Christmas 2023, he had been through six rounds of chemotherapy. With further investigations at that time, doctors found a lesion on his brain. One day he collapsed as his brain had started to bleed leading to emergency surgery to remove the tumour. He then had to have chemotherapy via injections into his spine. 

Julie says: 

“He was having the injections every three weeks, but his platelets kept dropping. He started to have seizures at home and one day I came downstairs to find him on the floor. He had more tests. The chemo hadn’t worked. There was a lot more cancer under the lining in his brain. They told us they could not do anything more. I was devastated.” 

It was at this point that Julie was put in touch with Rennie Grove Peace Hospice Care after Sam had started radiotherapy on his brain. Once home, the nurses from the Hospice at Home service came to see the family.  

One of the nurses who took care of Sam says: 

“We try to talk about end of life wishes with patients early on, but not everyone wants to do that.  I tried to talk around the subject a bit with Sam to gauge what he was feeling and how much he might have already talked about it. He was very open and had thought ahead. He knew that he would die and was very open to talking about things. 

“We supported Sam a lot with his symptoms. We helped with pain relief and medication management and offered a lot of psychological support to him too. He and his family could call us whenever they needed something.” 

Julie adds: 

“I had a meeting with the nurses from Rennie Grove Peace. We discussed things that could be done to help. We talked about equipment, a bed, where the bed could be… At that point Sam was still walking, but he then deteriorated and the Hospice at Home nurses and district nurses were visiting us every day.” 

Sam’s health declined rapidly. No longer able to walk independently, the nurses helped with advice on how to get a wheelchair. His legs then became even worse. So the Rennie Grove Peace team helped to organise equipment that Sam needed, including a walking frame and a ball to sit on in the shower. The occupational therapy team was very involved in making sure he had what he needed.  

As Sam deteriorated, the Rennie Grove Peace team was visiting and helping as much as they could.  

Julie told us: 

“Sam was sleeping on the couch and was waiting for a hospital bed to arrive. The nurses were there the day the bed arrived, but by that time, he had lost the use of his legs completely. So, the nurse rang for an ambulance. She just knew something wasn’t right. She was amazing. 

“Sam was in so much pain at that point. We were working with the nurses to arrange for Sam to come home again, but he took a turn for the worse before we could organise it.”

Sadly, Sam died on Monday 19th August 2024.  

Julie said of the Rennie Grove Peace nurses: 

“The support was always there. I could ring them and they would come. Sam really chatted to the nurses. He told them how he felt. He told them what he wanted for his funeral and that he was scared of dying. He was so brave.” 

The Hospice at Home team made such a difference to Julie and to Sam in his final days and weeks. Julie wanted to share Sam’s story to explain the impact the team had.  

“After Sam died, one of the nurses phoned me a few times and even sent me a card. The nurses were lovely”