Hello! Our names are Rachel and Nick and we would like to welcome you to the support page we have created for our treasured sister, Amber Fell!

Thank you for taking the time to visit and learn about Amber's story.

Amber is our beloved sister, just 44 years young and full of love, life and spirit.

She is a Mother, Daughter, Sister, Auntie, Fiancé, Artist and Dear Friend to so many.

In late January of this year, Amber began experiencing critically concerning symptoms she had never had before, such as cognitive deficits and grand mal seizures, that brought her into the hospital emergency room. It was during that ER visit that we received the most earth shattering news; they found a tumor in Amber's brain. Amber was admitted to the ICU to manage her life threatening symptoms and just 2 days later she underwent a craniotomy and tumor resection. Step one was getting through the brain surgery successfully, but the even harder part was waiting…waiting for the brain tumor pathology to tell us what kind of tumor Amber has. As if the initial part wasn’t hard enough, the news that followed was even harder. Pathology results determined that Amber’s brain cancer is the most aggressive type there is- an unmethylated Grade 4 Glioblastoma IDH Wild-Type. Long story short- the kind that doesn’t respond well to chemotherapy. The standard treatment for brain tumors is radiation and chemotherapy, however these two treatments alone generally only buy you a short period of time before the tumor comes back. With these 2 treatments alone, the average glioblastoma survival time is 12-18 months. Only 25% of patients survive more than one year, and only 5% of patients survive more than five years. To complicate matters further, her medical team also discovered a 7cm ovarian tumor. Unfortunately the treatment of that has to be postponed initially, as quick and immediate treatment of the brain cancer must take priority.

Luckily for Amber, we don’t go down without an all out battle. We immediately put on our research hats and got to work finding options beyond the standard treatment. By the skin of our teeth, we were fortunate enough to qualify and make the deadline for a clinical trial in Buffalo, New York at Roswell Park Cancer Center. It is a phase two trial of Roswell Park’s glioblastoma vaccine SurVaxM. Despite the extensive travel required over many months, this is our only hope for immunotherapy that has shown some promise.

Cancer is expensive. As you can imagine, Amber’s medical bills are accumulating quickly, and it is only just the beginning. Amber has worked her entire adult life, but now she is unable. What seems like overnight she lost so much independence - physically, cognitively and financially. She can no longer drive and requires 24/7 supervision due to continued seizures. In addition to medical bills, Amber will be traveling extensively to Buffalo for the clinical trial as well as any other trials she may be eligible for, as these will be our only hope in extending her life. We are humbly asking for donated support to help Amber pay for her past and ongoing medical care. We appreciate any support, no matter how small. If you are unable to support Amber financially, please consider sharing her story!

Thank you so very much.

-Rachel & Nick

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