The Samantha Smiles Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children with brain tumors and hydrocephalus by advancing research, diagnosis, and treatment, as well as helping uncompensated care for children with brain tumors and hydrocephalus. The creation of the Samantha Smiles Foundation was inspired based on the real-life events that transpired for Samantha, a middle school g
irl. In a 24 hour period, Samantha's life went from normal to undergoing life-saving brain surgery due to a previously undiagnosed case of hydrocephalus that was caused by an inoperable brain tumor wrapped around her thalamus (also undiagnosed prior). Over the next several months, Samantha's battle and journey would take her through ten brain surgeries, several of which were emergency life-saving events, and numerous shunt failures. It was this journey with Samantha, and the encounters with so many other families and children battling brain tumors, hydrocephalus, or both, and the challenges they all faced each and every day that led to the Samantha Smiles Foundation. Through the Samantha Smiles Foundation, we look to help advance today's research, diagnosis, and treatments in the hopes of creating a better tomorrow for other children and families faced with these challenges. A tomorrow filled with earlier diagnosis options, more reliable and less invasive treatments, and hopefully even a cure.
