Former baseball executive David Samson revealed the tragic news on Wednesday that his daughter, Kyra, died one day prior after a nearly yearlong fight with brain cancer.
She was 28.
Samson, former president of the Marlins and EVP of the now-defunct Expos, said Kyra was diagnosed with glioblastoma nearly 10 months ago and fought against one of the “cruelest diseases I’ve ever seen up close.”
The host of the “Nothing Personal” podcast and frequent guest on “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” revealed on his show last year that his daughter was seriously ill and that she was going through treatments.
“I have felt all of your concern and love for these months and wasn’t ready to be anymore specific than I was. Kyra was a 28-year-old young woman who loved deeply and who is impossible to describe in 280 characters,” Samson wrote on X on Wednesday. “While her life got stolen from her, she handled these months with courage, poise, and resolve. And all I want is for no family to feel what we feel today. For no young person to suffer the way she did.”
Samson stepped away from his show for two weeks last September before telling his audience that his daughter was sick. During a November episode of his podcast, he showed up with a shaved head and untrimmed beard in solidarity with Kyra.
“You know how sick my daughter is. And my daughter has been going through treatment,” he said on the program. “My daughter is a brave woman, is a strong woman. Is a woman who is able to go through these treatments, understanding the importance of them while recognizing the difficulty of them.
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“When you go to a hospital every day to get treatment and your hair starts falling out and you recognize what hair means in terms of vanity, you realize that vanity takes a step behind living. And I don’t mean a small step.”
Samson said that instead of flowers, people can make donations to The Kyra Fund, which has a $200,000 goal and will go toward research treatments of glioblastomas.
The fund has already reached over $158,000 in donations.