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For inquiries about the Sights Unseen Tour, or for more information, please send us an email by clicking here. For inquiries about this website, or to report problems, please send us an email by clicking here. |
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Samantha's 'Sights Unseen Tour' Home PageMission Accomplished:
We had fantastic weather, great pilots, great support, and great media coverage! Samantha has started speaking to civic groups about our trip (we're sure a book deal and movie-of-the-week deal will follow!). If you know of service organization that is looking for a speaker, let us know. See more about the entire trip on her blog… Samantha Gilley participated in an amazing journey that began on Saturday, October 27, 2007 and continued through November 5. Samantha, who is 18 and hails from Flintstone, Georgia, rode her bicycle some 401 miles from Chattanooga to Memphis, Tennessee. But, this was no ordinary journey. Samantha is totally blind.
However, carried by her faith, Samantha has approached her various illnesses with a willingness to be used by God in each situation and refused to feel sorry for herself. This attitude has driven her in everything she does. Samantha decided it was time to give back to the hospital that helped save her life. The ride was a dream of Samantha's for many years and training and planning for the ride began in the fall of 2006. Several years ago the Rush Miller Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation gave Samantha a tandem bicycle. Since then she has convinced several people to take her riding. These rides give Sam freedom to go places, feel breezes, enjoy sounds smells, speed, and physical exertion. So Samantha, along with a team of sighted co-pilots, is tackled her dream. The journey began at the Discovery Museum, in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee, and continued across Monteagle Mountain and passed through Nashville before they headed west to Memphis, Tennessee. The route ended at Overton Park, in Memphis. Samantha used the ride to raise money for children with cancer, to raise awareness about the work done at St. Jude, and to give hope to kids in situations just like her own. Like everything else she does, from rock climbing to snow skiing, Samantha has proven to be an inspiration to those who trained and worked with her to make her dream of this ride come true.
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home Copyright 2007 - Samantha Gilley & Harpswitch Designs Disclaimer - This website, the staff of the Sights Unseen Tour, volunteers or sponsors are not affiliated with St. Jude Hospital in any way. All proceeds from this project will be donated to St. Jude Hospital in the name of Samantha Gilley. The Sights Unseen Tour is not sanctioned in any way by St. Jude Hospital. |
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At the age of only 6-weeks, Samantha was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer that affects the eye. Complications from the disease placed her chances of survival at less than 10% and have required her to undergo many hours of treatment over the years, at St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, in Memphis, Tennessee, and various other hospitals around the country.
The cancer and subsequent radiation treatments have taken a toll physically on Sam as she has lost her sight, her hearing in one ear, and portions of her cheek bone and jaw.
