Hollywood stars help raise $100,000 for Southern Colorado mom battling cancer

BUENA VISTA, Colo. (KRDO)- More than $100,000 has been raised to help a Southern Colorado mother who's battling cancer. The money was raised within a week, but it's the people who donated to the GoFundMe that are giving her a sigh of relief. 

Amy Ames is from Buena Vista and her life was turned upside down when she found out she has stage 4 cancer. 

"So I was diagnosed with Cholangiocarcinoma, which is bile duct cancer. I had no idea what in the world that was until I was diagnosed with it," said Ames. 

Now that Ames is done with her first round of chemo, she qualifies for a new treatment plan that will include targeted therapy.

"It did really well in trials. So now it's here. And it has had an 80% success rate. And I mean, that's absolutely unbelievable," said Ames. 

She decided to create a GoFundMe page to help pay for her treatment and what happened next has changed her life. 

"I just thought, oh my god, I can pay some bills. I can stay in my home with my children while I get this treatment, which is a huge deal to me," said Ames. 

Social Media Influencer, Tommy Marcus, better known as Quentin Quarantino came up with the idea to share one health-related GoFundMe page every day in hopes that his followers would donate money. He decided to reach out to Hollywood star Kristen Bell. 

"Kristen is like, one of the best people that I've ever engaged with in my life. And, and she just said, okay, that was amazing. Tell me, tell me how we can do more things like," said Marcus.

Bell donated $25,000 to Ames' GoFundMe page. 

Marcus says he's received thousands of GoFundMe pages but there was one thing that stood out the most when he read Ames' page. 

"There was a line in the GoFundMe that said, like hoping and praying for a miracle and preparing for death. And I saw the photos of her kids," said Marcus.

Thanks to Marcus' idea and the generosity of people who have donated, Ames said she can now focus on getting better. 

"Because of my GoFundMe and the new leverage that I have, I get to walk into my own doctor's office on Monday and say, but we do this now. I'm ahead of schedule. So it's very exciting," said Ames. 

Ames told us that she's been emailing Kristen Bell and everyone who donated to her GoFundMe page. She's also developed a friendship with Marcus. Ames will head to her first new treatment on Monday, Jan. 6 as she continues on the road to recovery.