Daughter of former Miami Marlins president David Samson died after a months-long battle with brain cancer, the former executive said on Wednesday, June 24.
“Yesterday, my daughter, Kyrapassed peacefully after 9 months and 11 days of battling one of the most aggressive diseases I’ve ever seen up close,” David, 58, shared on X. “He was diagnosed with brain cancer, specifically Glioblastoma. I’ve heard all your concern and love these months and I wasn’t ready to express it as clearly as I could.”
He continued, “Kyra was a 28-year-old young woman who loved deeply and that cannot be described in 280 letters. Although her life was stolen, she faced these months with courage, peace and determination. And all I want is for no family to feel the way we feel today. For no young person to suffer the way she suffered.”
David also asked that in lieu of flowers, people make a memorial gift to The Kyra Fund, whose website says it will “support a new immunotherapy research project focused on glioblastoma” in partnership with the Glioblastoma Research Organization.
The fund has raised more than $27,000 of its $100,000 goal as of this writing.
David first announced the adoption of his daughter in September after a two-week absence on his “Nothing Personal” podcast.
Kira Samson
Courtesy of David Samson/X“I have been away for two weeks as my family is facing a serious situation,” he said. “I have a very sick daughter, it just happened, for two weeks I have been trying to figure out how to do the only important thing, which is to take care of her and my other children and my family.
David continued, “I wasn’t ready to talk about it. I wasn’t ready to think about it without doing what was in front of me, which was to find a way to deal with the unthinkable, the unimaginable, that’s not going to happen. And you open your eyes 24 hours a day, and it’s happening. It’s in front of you. There’s no escaping life you can do. eye. And it happened.”
She added that before Kyra’s diagnosis, she thought her identity came from her job.
“It turned out that everything was wrong,” David admitted. “It turns out that what defines me is trying to protect the people I love more than anything else in the world… I’m talking about an abundance of love and desire for that child to have the life they want… and then all of a sudden the wrong call comes, and it’s over. There’s no control.”
David worked for the Marlins from 2002 to 2017, winning the World Series with the team in 2003. He is also known for being the first to leave. Survivor: Cagayanone of the most popular seasons of the show, in 2013. He started hosting “Nothing Personal” in 2019 and is a regular guest on the “Pablo Torre Finds Out” podcast.
