Taylor Swift fan Samantha Bulloch has revealed her dying wish is to meet the singer and has issued a last-minute plea to make her dreams come true.
Samantha, 29, from Sydney, was devastatingly given just three years left to live when she was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer one year ago.
Now, Samantha has taken to social media to issue a heartfelt plea to anyone who could arrange for her to meet Taylor during the Australian leg of her Eras tour.
The Swiftie already has a ticket for Taylor’s final show in Sydney on February 26, but is desperate for the chance to meet the global mega star backstage.
She gushed that it would ‘make her year’ and said she wants to tell Taylor how much she means to her, having been a die-hard fan since she was just 15 years old.
Taylor Swift fan Samantha Bulloch has revealed her dying wish is to meet the singer and has issued a last-minute plea to make her dreams come true
Samantha told 7Life: ‘Taylor means so much to me, and I’d love the opportunity to tell her just how much of an impact she’s made on my life.
‘I’ve loved her since I was 15, and her music has seen me through so many chapters in my life — including this one.’
Samantha said she recently got Taylor’s lyric ‘For the hope of it all’ from her song August tattooed on her arm, encouraging her to live life to the fullest amid her cancer battle.
‘I adopted that lyric during my experience with cancer. I’m choosing to live for the hope of it all,’ she explained.
Issuing a heartfelt plea to anyone who might be able to arrange a meet and greet with Taylor, she said: ‘I’m low key dying and honestly this would just make my year.’
Taylor’s Eras tour will kick off at Melbourne’s Cricket Ground on February 16, with the star taking to the stage three nights in a row, before she will perform at Sydney’s Accor Stadium for four nights from February 23-26.
Samantha’s life was turned upside down last year when she was told she had just three years to live after doctors found life-threatening tumours spread through her colon, liver and right lung following a routine blood test.
Samantha has taken to social media to issue a heartfelt plea to anyone who could arrange for her to meet Taylor during the Australian leg of her Eras tour
On February 28, the library assistant – who was 28 years old at the time – was devastatingly diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer that had spread to her organs.
‘I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I’m not overweight, I don’t eat processed meat, I barely eat red meat, and have no family history of bowel cancer – it just didn’t make sense,’ Samantha told FEMAIL of her diagnosis in December.
She was diagnosed with cancer after visiting her GP for a blood test to check her iron levels.
Her symptoms included ‘random’ fatigue, the odd bout of bloating and some blood spotting during 2020 which she put down to stress.
The blood test results confirmed that she’s anaemic but also highlighted that her liver enzymes were ‘three times outside the normal rate’.
The GP made an appointment to do an ultrasound on Samantha’s liver which revealed ‘non-specific lesions’ and a mass. The report also listed a variety of illnesses that it could be – one of them being cancer.
‘When I saw that I already thought it was a death sentence,’ she said.
The Swiftie already has a ticket for Taylor’s final show in Sydney on February 26, but is desperate for the chance to meet the global mega star backstage
A week later the results from a CT scan confirmed Samantha’s worst fears – she had a tumour growing in her sigmoid colon which had spread to her liver and right lung.
‘I thought how have I been living with tumours growing in my body and didn’t know about it? It was wild to me,’ she said.
‘I remember sitting in that appointment with my GP and my dad thinking “it’s over, they’re going to tell me there’s nothing they can do”. I knew how bad it was and that absolutely terrified me.’
The tumour in her colon was 6cm, the two in her liver were 8cm and the one in her right lung was 1.5cm, while she also had a ‘bunch of little tumours’ scattered in her liver that couldn’t be measured.
The life-changing news shook Samantha to her core and she initially thought, ‘I can’t do this, I don’t want to do this, I’m not strong enough to do this’.
‘I didn’t even want to attempt it but somehow I put on my big girl pants and took myself to the next appointment. The first few months were so up and down emotionally – I couldn’t stop crying on the first day of treatment.’
Two days after the diagnosis, she met with an oncologist and ‘barely remembers the conversation’ after the hefty life-changing news.
Instead of having surgery first, doctors opted to go with chemotherapy in attempt to shrink the tumours.
Samantha started treatment on March 31 and she’s been having fortnightly visits since. By her sixth chemotherapy session the tumours had shrunk significantly.
She gushed that it would ‘make her year’ and said she wants to tell Taylor how much she means to her, having been a die-hard fan since she was just 15 years old
At the beginning of October, a scan found that the colon tumour had ‘collapsed’ – meaning it’s flattened against the wall of the colon.
The tumour in the lung could also no longer be measured because it’s now too small, and one in the liver is under 2cm while the other is 3cm.
‘So far I’ve had a very positive response to treatment – better than my doctor thought I would have,’ she said. ‘It’s really been a miracle and I’m so glad it’s been working so well.’
Samantha said that she thought she was already nine months into her two or three years left, before she was reassured by the doctor that it ‘doesn’t quite work like that’.
She explained after every check-up from the scans the clock restarts because the time doesn’t start from the diagnosis, it restarts from the latest scan.
‘My doctor said to me if treatment doesn’t work, you’re looking at less than 12 months. If it does work, I hope to buy you two to three years’, which is obviously not what anyone wants to hear,’ she said.
Samantha, 29, from Sydney, was devastatingly given just three years left to live when she was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer one year ago
‘My mum died of breast cancer when I was 10. It started at stage one or two then elevated to stage four. It was very aggressive and moved into her liver, then she really went downhill quick.
‘So I associate cancer in the liver with really bad news because I saw it first hand.’
‘I have surprised myself with the fact that I had [the ability to do this] and push through. I’ve been able to come to terms and accept that I have cancer,’ she continued.
‘If you had told me last year that I’ll be diagnosed with cancer and that I’m actually going to be fine emotionally, I wouldn’t have believed you. You’ll be surprised what you can do.’
