Tamika Felder and son Chayton.Photo: Diana Koenigsberg
Cervical cancer survivor Tamika Felder’s path to parenthood came true thanks to a series of generous acts from people she’d never met in person — including a couple who donated frozen embryos and a fertility expert who secured free services. More than a year after the “kindness train” began, Felder says, her son Chayton was born.
Then, at just 25 years old, Felder received “soul-crushing” news from her doctor: she had cervical cancer and would need a lifesaving radical hysterectomy, making childbirth near impossible. “I never thought that the choice to have children would be taken away from me,” she says.
Rocky Campbell and Tamika Felder with son Chayton.Danielle Finney
Felder explored fertility preservation options in the weeks before her hysterectomy in 2001, but “ultimately the insurance wouldn’t cover it, and we just ran out of time,” she says.
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Just two weeks earlier, Marable and her husband, Sean, of Portland, Ore., welcomed healthy twin boys — Emmett and Grant — via a surrogate. Unlike Felder, Marable was able to freeze embryos before her hysterectomy in 2017. “My saving grace in my devastating diagnosis was the ability to preserve our fertility,” says Marable. “Tamika was denied the opportunity to do the same. Sean and I talked about it, and he was very open to the idea of donating our embryos to them, given all that she had done for the community.”
Tamika Felder and Rocky Campbell with the Marable family.Elyse Cosgrove/Torch Pictures
When Marable made the offer, “I told her, ‘This is not a sick and twisted April Fool’s joke,'” she recalls. “Tamika was completely caught off guard.” Says Felder: “She said that she’s watched Rocky and me on social media, she loves our relationship, and she wanted me to experience motherhood. I was speechless—and I’m never speechless. I literally couldn’t stop crying.”
There was just one problem with the plan: the cost of surrogacy. In the U.S., gestational surrogacy can run up to $150,000, according to Stephanie Levich, an infertility and surrogacy expert in Los Angeles.
Felder initially tried to find a surrogate independently. When that didn’t work out, fertility lawyer Rijon Charne — a fellow cancer survivor who is the founding attorney ofSunray Fertility Law— connected her with Levich, whose firmFamily Match Consultingspecializes in donor and surrogate searches.
After just one call, Levich, 41, was committed to helping the couple overcome their last hurdles. “The biggest part was knowing how much love Tamika has poured into the lives of other cancer survivors,” she says. “I just thought, ‘Gosh, this woman has come so far—and Ginny’s act of kindness brought her close to becoming a mom.’ The idea of paying it forward, and an act of kindness inspiring another one, was so compelling. Tamika and Rocky are just such a deserving couple.”
Unbeknownst to Felder, Levich immediately shared her story with professional colleagues, pleading for discounts or pro bono assistance. When she called Brooke Kimbrough, the CEO and cofounder ofRoots Surrogacy, Kimbrough instantly agreed to waive her agency’s fees. As for the rest, she recalls telling Levich, “We’ll just get the whole community to do it.”
Sure enough, Levich helped secure more than $90,000 worth of services within a couple of hours. Felder and Campbell were floored. “Tamika hasn’t asked for anything,” says Levich, “but she is who she is, and it just makes people want to help.”
“I have never been so happy to help out someone like Tamika,” adds fertility attorney Charne, who waived her legal fees and did all her work for Felder pro bono. “My heart was filled with such joy to help her on her journey.”
“I can’t imagine life without him now that he’s here. That moment that I met him he was my everything,” she says. “He’s ours.”
It wasn’t until February that Felder met Levich and Kimbrough in person for the first time. Felder flew from Maryland to L.A. with son Chayton.
“I wouldn’t have him without her,” Felder says. “We’re attached for life.”
Adds Levich: “I meet a lot of babies that I’ve helped to create, but with him, it’s very different.”
Diana Koenigsberg
One of the sweetest moments from the trip? Watching Levich read her children’s bookFrom The Start: A Book About Love and Making Familiesto Chayton. “He is the epitome of what is in that book,” says Felder. “He was made with love.”
Felder and Campbell are also forever bonded with the Marables, whose twins, now 2, are Chayton’s biological siblings. Last July the families spent a weekend together in Portland as they awaited Chayton’s arrival. Now the moms talk every week and share pictures of their growing boys.
source: people.com
