Serve humbly, live joyfully and battle fiercely: from fighting cancer to finding purpose
- Aimee Pierce
- 1 hour ago
- 5 min read
At 12 years old, Ella Ferris knew there was something wrong. While watching TV, she would have to close one eye just to get the double vision to subside, but the migraines and dizziness persisted. Ferris visited multiple doctors to determine the cause of the issue but was left with zero answers.
“Doctors kind of just downplayed it and told me that I was going through puberty and it was normal,” Ferris said.
Two years later, while trying out for her high school dance team as a freshman, she felt like something was still off.
“My thought process was so altered in a way, like it wasn’t very meaningful,” Ella said.
The optometrist suggested that they run a test of her optic nerve, but at first, she and her mom decided to decline. It wasn’t until the optometrist offered to pay for the test herself that they complied.
The test results revealed papilledema, the swelling of the optic nerve at the back of the eye usually caused by increased pressure inside the skull, and the optometrist called the retinal specialist right away for a next-day appointment.
“There were so many people that helped save Ella's life, and the very first person was that optometrist at LensCrafters,” Ella’s mom, Kellie Ferris, said.
Following an emergency MRI, they waited for the results. When they pressed for an answer to the test, Kellie finally got a call from the retinal specialist.
A malignant tumor on her brain stem was so severe, doctors told her, “We don’t know how you’re alive right now.”
They took off to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, unaware of when or in what state they would return home.
“That was the worst moment of my life,” Kellie said. “I mean, she just finished eighth grade. She was still little to me. So it was, it was rough.”
Ella was diagnosed with hydrocephalus, which happens when fluid in the brain cannot drain like it’s supposed to. Her brain tumor had grown in a spot where it blocked the drainage, so the fluid was building up, making her head swell dangerously.
By the time she got to the hospital, doctors said she could have died at any moment.
What surprised them was how OK she looked. From the outside, Ella looked normal with little to no external swelling. Throughout the first couple of hours, doctors from different departments kept coming in. Not just to help, but because they had heard about her and couldn’t believe how normal she seemed.
According to Kellie, one doctor even said, “How you look sitting in that bed does not match what we see on your MRI.”
In a matter of days, Ella’s whole life was flipped upside down. From dancing in her room happily, to spending nights in a hospital bed, realizing it’s a miracle she’s alive.
While she was trying to process everything, her parents were right by her side in shifts, driving back and forth between Georgetown, Kentucky, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital to make sure she was never alone during treatment, even throughout COVID-19 isolation.
Since she was a fall risk and wasn’t allowed to walk on her own, her family would push her around on the oncology floor in a wheelchair, making her feel loved even with the circumstances.
“I couldn't deal with my own emotions with her. She was 13 years old. She was the priority,” Kellie said. “I had to shove it down.”
One moment Ella will never forget was watching the fireworks from her hospital window on the Fourth of July, just one day after her surgery.
“I remember sitting with my dad, and I couldn’t even hear them — they were so far away,” she said. “Now, every Fourth of July, I’m just so thankful I can hear them. It reminds me I’m still here.”
Through it all, she’s tried to change her narrative.
“I don’t want my story to be a sob story. I want it to be about joy and triumph,” Ella said.
Today, Ella serves on DanceBlue’s family relations committee and hopes to one day become a pediatric oncology nurse.
“I’m so blessed and so grateful for how my life has played out. I have the opportunity to speak for these kids and walk for these kids, because at one point, I was that kid,” Ella said.
On July 3, five years after her diagnosis, Ella finally stood in the hallway she had dreamed about for so long. With her family, friends, patients and nurses lining the hall, clapping and cheering for her, she turned the corner and saw the bell that signifies five years of remission. Reaching it was something she had imagined countless times, but didn’t know if the day would come.
“I was just like, so happy,” Ella said. “Thank you, Jesus. I'm so grateful to live another day and walk in your grace and glory and share this love with kids that deserve it the most.”
For Ella, ringing the bell was not simply the end of her journey but a reminder that she has lived even during the darkest moments. She has conquered cancer and found her purpose.
“I feel like I want to serve others with, being humble, being grateful. But I also want to live with joy,” Ella said. “I want when people think Ella Ferris to think of joy, truthfully.”
When she becomes a nurse, Ella wants to give her future patients the care and understanding she had from her nurses. Through DanceBlue, she wants to continue to speak, walk and advocate for kids whose shoes she was in just a little bit ago.
“I'm grateful for this tumor, because would I be the same person that I am?” Ella said. “Would I be going through the same pathways, and how would my life be different? And I don't want anything to be different.”
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