GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Tammy Myers still can’t believe she has the family she’s dreamed of for years. She smiled when she talked about her kids during an interview on Wednesday morning.
“I have twins, yes,” Myers said with laughter. “Honestly, it was always my dream to have twins, even as a little girl. Something that I didn’t actually think would happen. But now looking back, you know, the path wasn’t how I originally thought it would be.”
For Myers, having a family is a miracle, she said, considering she was diagnosed with breast cancer at just 33 years old in 2015. She was the mother of a toddler at the time, and she and her husband wanted more kids.
“It was devastating,” Myers recalled. “In those moments, you know, it’s a whirlwind and you’re hit by a Mac truck. I had two questions for my oncologist in the moment: one was how long do I have? And, can I have more children?”
The doctors told her that she could have more children. However, due to the kind of cancer that she had, which was hormone positive, it meant that her cancer could return if she got pregnant again. So, if Myers chose to have more children she needed to make a decision quickly, before undergoing surgery and chemotherapy.
“What was recommended, our only option, would be to do an emergency egg harvest to retrieve as many viable eggs as possible from my body. And then store those while I fought my cancer,” Myers said. “And then when the time was right, you know, if I made it past it to the other side my husband and I could then use our embryos that were in storage and a gestational carrier could carry our child.”
Myers said she and her husband had 24 hours to make a decision. So, they chose to harvest their eggs. However, they didn’t have the money to pay for it.
“We didn’t know how bad it was. We didn’t know if I was going to make it through and this was a huge financial undertaking. So, it’s not something that we knew that we could take on,” she said. “We were blessed because we, in the final hour, we had some family members step up and offer to help us out so that we could go through the process of preserving our fertility.”
Myers was grateful, she said.
In January 2021, her twins Eames and Ellison were born via a gestational carrier. In the following months, the family battled the courts to be legally recognized as the parents since in the state of Michigan the gestational carriers are seen as the parents. However, in December 2022, they officially adopted the twins.
Now, with the that part of her journey behind her, she’s moving forward with Dr. William Dodds, who was one of the doctors who helped her. He recently founded the Fertility Preservation Foundation.
Dr. Dodds created it with a few other physicians. He said it’s been a dream of theirs for years.
“In the last 10 to 15 years there’s really been an advancement in coordination of care with oncology cancer specialists and fertility specialists,” he said. “We just would like to have this fund so we can reach more effectively making it more available for more patients to do this option to their cancer care.”
Both Dr. Dodds and Myers met at The Fertility Center on Eagle Park Drive for the interview on Wednesday morning.
Dodds said there’s been a number of studies published that show that having children after cancer is a top concern for patients.
“Well our plan is that for patients that need this type of care it costs somewhere between $8,000-$10,000,” Dr. Dodds said. “And our goal is initially to provide up to 50 percent of that coverage for families who have financial need.”
Dr. Dodds said their goal is to one day provide full coverage. However, for now, it’s baby steps for the foundation.
They recently held a fundraising event, in which Myers spoke. She said she hopes people don’t give up hope.
“Those hours are dark and sometimes it feels like you’re never going to make it through to the other side, and even when you do, will your dream of completing your family come true?” Myers said. “It’s tough but stay the course. You know, there is hope out there. There are so many people that want to help and be a part of your journey and see you make it to the other side.”
***To learn more about the foundation or to make a donation, click here.***
