Timothy Hamm

02/04/1971 — 06/20/2009

Tim was 37 years old when he passed away. Tim was an avid surfer and very well know for his surfing. While staying in Puerto Rico, he got a spot on his back and went to the doctor afraid it was melanoma.

They did surgery and said it was benign and four years later he got a tumor under his arm while living in Costa Rica with his fiance and son. They did surgery and determined it was melanoma and sent him home to South Carolina for treatment.

He had no insurance because he wasn’t a resident of Costa Rica. The Greenville hospital took him in for treatment. They did another surgery and said the one in Costa Rica was incomplete.

After that, they removed part of his clavicle, part of his chest wall, and did radiation. Then, they did another scan and found that it was now on his lung so they stopped radiation and put him in a clinical trial.

We were hoping for a vacine that they now have but they put him on interferon which did nothing and the disease spread into his system. So, they decided to do chemo carbo platin and taxol and that caused it to go to his brain.

He had surgery again to relive the pressure on the brain and do radiation on the brain but it killed him.

Tim leaves behind a three year old and a new baby that was born one week after he died. Tim was a healthy young man. He did not smoke and drank very little. He was such a good person and my youngest child. His friends held a memorial and benefit for Tim to help his children.

I hear about awareness for breast cancer all the time what about awareness for melanoma. How do we get it out there?

Mother