Sept. 16, 2023 – Kristin Danielle Rocha Pires was born February 6, 1986, in Portland, Oregon, and grew up in North Plains, Oregon. She loved horses, trained horses, and rescued horses in need of homes. She showed horses in 4H, OHSET, Open and Breed shows in her teens, often winning Champion and Blues. She had her first daughter, Hailee Manglos, in 2005 and moved with her first husband to Sarasota, Florida, where she was a Girl Scout leader, proud dance mom and continued working with horses. She had her second daughter, Brielle Pires, in 2018, and she and Jeffrey Pires were married in Key West, Fla., on March 13, 2020. Kristin earned her LPN license in the fall of 2017 and worked as a school nurse until moving to Surf City, North Carolina, where her husband serves in the Coast Guard at Camp Lejeune. She made one of her dreams come true, adopting a retired racing thoroughbred, “Awsome Faith” (Duke) in 2022 and was able to see Brielle participate in her first equestrian competitions. She was a beloved stepmother to Ryland Pires and loved nothing more than to watch and encourage the kids in their activities. She loved her family, friends and animals fiercely and lived to bring us all together. Kristin battled severe pain from the age of 15, with an official diagnosis of synovial sarcoma in 2013, and was inspirational in her strength and courage throughout many surgeries and treatments. From the third recurrence in fall 2020 through summer of 2023, Kristin went through chemo and radiation therapies as well as experimental t-cell therapy at Duke Cancer Center which prolonged her time with her family, but ultimately her sarcoma was incurable. Donations in her memory may be made to the Sarcoma Foundation in support of a cure for this rare disease.