Hello! I am Amber Brown. I have been a physician associate for 17 years while raising 3 amazing kids and being married to my best friend.

In November 2024 I started having some pain in my tongue and ear. I scheduled an ENT for an appointment about 8 weeks later. By the time that appointment was here I had significant pain limiting my oral intake and had lost about 25 pounds. The ENT looked in my mouth and was sure I had cancer. He scheduled a biopsy for two weeks later. In the meantime, my husband started looking for anything else we could do. He was able to get me a next day appointment at The James Cancer Center at Ohio State University. There we met a great team and had a biopsy in the office that confirmed our greatest fear - squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue.

We were immediately given appointments for everything we needed - oncology, med port placement, PET scan, nutrition support and feeding tube placement.

Although the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes in my neck we had no further metastasis below the clavicle.

Since my diagnosis I have not been able to work. I was on a locums contract out of state when I was diagnosed and could not travel anymore due to my failing nutrition status and immune compromise related to chemo. I had to quit my local job in order to access my retirement accounts because cancer and not working didn’t fit the plan guidelines for hardship withdrawal.

So this brings me to my very humble request. We are one week out from hemiglossectomy with flap

reconstruction and skin grafting. I did my best to make my 6 months of savings last in this economy while raising three kids and not completely disrupting their lives.

Any amount will help and please know that once I am back to work we plan to make donations to match the amount that we were gifted in our time of need.