Noticing Neighbors Amber Dawkins, CF Ninja Warrior

Photo credit: Whitney Revelle Photography

She’s a fierce advocate in the Cystic Fibrosis community, she’s a Branding Photographer, and an American Ninja Warrior. Meet Amber Dawkins, our adventurous neighbor who describes herself as “93% extroverted!” Amber has been through many stages in her journey being an entrepreneur, advocate for those with CF, and contestant on Season 12 of American Ninja Warrior. With each new community she enters into, she has a way of contributing by learning how she can help others grow. I got the chance to sit down with her and learn about how she looks at life from all of her experiences.

Hayley: To start us off, could you introduce yourself to our readers? Amber:

Sure thing! My name is Amber Dawkins, and I have lived in the Kansas City area my whole life. I am both a mom and step mom. We're a blended family with five kids, and my husband and I got married in March of 2020.

So we were one of those people that had to get married under the ten person gathering limit. We canceled the reception, canceled the meal, and canceled the cake! We live streamed guests on laptops and got married with just the seven of us. My mom, a photographer, and a minister. We had a really interesting start to our big blended family. Now we all stay pretty busy with kids activities, plus I just love to adventure around the city! I'm always making big family plans to go down to Union Station or go visit the parks, or fly kites at the Nelson. I love Kansas City and all that it has to offer, so we go out and about exploring to make memories together.

I also run my own photography business, as a branding and commercial photographer. In 2016 was when I really decided this was going to be my full time career and I was going to head toward the commercial part of the industry, so now I spend a lot of time doing branding, photography, for small businesses.

Hayley: What does that look like? Amber: I'll go in and take all the images a business needs to showcase their story and services. It works well for social media platforms, as well as commercials and billboards. I go in and take pictures of their spaces, their people, their process, their products. We kind of tell the whole visual story. So I've gotten to know a lot of small business owners in Kansas City, and it just makes me feel even more connected and proud of our community.

Hayley:

You know, the series title that we're doing all these stories under is ‘Noticing Neighbors.’ And it's all about really seeing our neighbors in Kansas City. It feels like meeting all the people that you can make connections with, who you might not know are doing such meaningful work. It really sounds like you're meeting a lot of people that are making their impact in the area!

Amber:

It's been really cool to see the entrepreneurial spirit and the way small businesses cheer each other on! I mean, you see ‘buy local’ and ‘support local’ all the time. We are the city of tourists that wear our own Kansas City merchandise all around, all the time. It’s really cool to be a part of! When I first started trying to expand my business into a full time career, I joined a networking group and one of the first questions another small business owner asked me was, “What can I do to help your business grow?” I just remember thinking, like, what an amazing mindset to have. Instead of trying to scramble for your own growth, reaching out and saying, how can I help others grow? Then in turn, your network grows and your friendships grow, and eventually that's going to come back to you. So now, that's become the cornerstone of the branding and commercial part of my business. It’s where I am asking: how can I help your small business grow? Let's get images out there that are going to connect you to your audience and to your ideal clients.

Hayley:

Wow, that's such a good point. That expanding your network, depending on how you do it, can give back to you! Like, if you reach out with a certain intention, it does come back.

Amber:

Yeah, absolutely.

Hayley:

I've also noticed you are multifaceted. It's so wonderful, you can’t be put in a box! There’s so much to you. I also see you raising awareness for causes. Would you be open to talking about CF, and your journey with it? You are always very open with that online and raising that awareness.

Amber:

Absolutely. I am very much an open book in all areas of my life. I'm just, I think, a very transparent person. I tell all probably more than I should at times, but it's been that way for me with CF my whole life.

I was born with cystic fibrosis, and diagnosed at birth. I was actually born with an intestinal blockage, which is a symptom of cystic fibrosis. So I required emergency surgery, and they went ahead and did the sweat test to diagnose CF at just three days old. And sure enough, it was positive. So it's something I've had my entire life. Hayley: Can you explain what that means for our readers? Amber: It's a genetic disease that affects, really, every system of your body—but it is primarily known for its effect on the respiratory system.

Essentially, we are too salty, which sounds crazy. In CF, the salt chloride channel doesn't function how it should, and so that salt builds up. And if you start to think of all the substances in our body that are supposed to be running on this balance of water and salt, and how if there's too much salt in the system, everything will get gunked up. There can be more lung infections, there can be scarring in the pancreas, just really on and on and on examples of it affecting all of the systems. Hayley:

What has that looked like for you in your life?

Amber:

I was very blessed as a child to grow up with fairly stable health. My respiratory system was not impacted as severely as a lot of CF patients. I tended to have more digestive issues, and eventually became diabetic because of the wear and tear and scarring on my pancreas. But from a lung perspective, and a respiratory perspective, things were pretty stable. I did have home IV treatments for three weeks in high school because I had cultured a bacteria, Pseudomonas, in my lungs. It was the biggest, most immediate and acute impact I'd had up until that point. I did daily breathing treatments. I took tons of medications every day, but that had been a part of my everyday life forever. So that didn't feel as impacting as suddenly having this bacteria take up resonance. I remember when I was on home IVs, and had to go to school with the IV site in my arm. Suddenly it was just right there, loud in my face, instead of in the background as daily maintenance. So that was really when I started getting a little more involved in learning about CF. Hayley: What were those steps for learning more?

Amber:

I was going on online forums and reading stories of other people that had CF, and I was seeing these accounts of teenagers or people in their 20s who were dying from CF. Their accounts were being taken over by their parents as memorial accounts. And I was realizing, even though I'd had a relatively stable and healthy childhood, that at any moment, this could take a very serious turn. It was a bit of an emotional realization for me.

Hayley:

You know, I think a lot of people go through a whole lifetime never having that moment. Some people do, but some people don't. And when you had that moment with that realization, how does that impact what you do in your day to day life? You know what I mean?

Amber:

Well, I'd always had the mindset from a very young age that CF was just a part of my life and it wasn't going to define how I lived or who I was. It was a part of my everyday, like I said, with the daily breathing treatments. I currently take about 180 pills a week, so a decent amount of medication, doctors appointments and blood work and check-ins and chest X-rays and pulmonary function tests. It was just a part of life, though. I was very active and actually, if you're able to be active with CF, it benefits you. The hard work on your lungs helps naturally keep them clear, so I was active. I did martial arts, and I did cheerleading, and I did gymnastics for a little bit. I was always wanting to be part of things, even beyond physical activity. I was in student council, leadership committees, and the French club. I feel like my whole life I've really had a drive to try new things and be a part of things. I'm very extroverted on personality tests. I score it at like, 93% extroverted! Which is pretty high up there.

As I entered adulthood, that transitioned into an adventurous mindset. It wasn't just about being active and being involved, I wanted to adventure! I wanted to travel and I wanted to skydive, and I wanted to sandboard the great dunes of Colorado and swim with sea turtles in Hawaii and ride dolphins in Jamaica. I started finding all of these bucket list type items. Plus I feel like adventure really feeds an adventurous spirit, and then you just crave more! It has been incredible. I feel like I've had many once in a lifetime experiences.

Hayley: What else? This is so exciting! Amber: I'm trying to think, what else? I've taken a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon and landed inside for lunch. There are so many things! Our world offers these amazing opportunities and adventures out there, and I just want to do as many of them as I can. I want to see the world, and I want the exhilaration of it all.

Hayley:

That takes a lot of initiative. Like, if you are going out on purpose to find these things, you can find them. That's incredible.

One thing you have done is compete in American Ninja Warrior! That was the coolest thing to watch. Can you talk about your experience with it?

Amber:

Yeah, absolutely. So this is another one of those things I was doing during this really adventurous part of my adulthood. I was out there and going after it! It started when I got to watch a friend test the Ninja course, back when they were filming here at Union Station in 2017. Before that, I didn't realize that everyday people could sign up to test the course before filming! Competitors themselves can't be on the course before filming. You get one shot. It's live, and you have not been on those obstacles yet. You do not get to practice them first. You get to see them demonstrated, but that is it! So instead, testers that are not competing on the show get to try it. I got to see this testing, and I was like: Can I do that? I want to do this. It looks like so much fun!

I found out that there was a local ninja gym that you can go to and train on obstacles, so that was my goal. I wanted to get there and try this so that next time American Ninja Warrior came to Kansas City to film, I was going to be one of those testers. So I got there and met Alex, who is one of the coaches. He showed me a few of the obstacles, and with my gymnastics and cheerleading history, I had a bit more of an acrobatic background to use. I really took to the Lachet bars, which are like monkey bars that are spread really far apart, and you throw your body forward to catch the next bar. I was able to do that my first time at the gym, and Alex looked at me and said, “Don't train to test the course. You need to train. To do this! You need to train and be on the show.” And I was like, okay, let's do it! It's just another adventure. It's just another journey, and something new to try. Then over the next few months, I completely fell in love with the American Ninja Warrior community.

At the gym, there are contestants who have been on the show before, and everyone is so welcoming. I instantly had this whole new community of people that would coach me from the sidelines, cheer me on, or pick me up when I got an injury from training. I loved the community as much as I loved the sport, and built a bit of a new identity in that. I actually went through a divorce in 2017, and a lot of these travel adventures and this American Ninja Warrior journey were a part of my healing process. Hayley: Why do you think that it was meaningful to you during that? Amber: It was a little bit about finding the light hearted spirit again, and also seeing my identity in this new community of people—so I was all in for many reasons. For the friendships, for the environment, for the sport, for the thrill of completing something that looked impossible or was so hard just last month! I started progressing. It was a little difficult with cystic fibrosis, because when you do get a lung infection with CF, you have to stop all training. Hayley: Can you explain why? Amber: Well, when you do get a lung infection with CF, sometimes you have to take these really heavy hitting antibiotics that put your tendons at risk of spontaneous rupture. Hayley: Gotcha.

Amber:

So you have to stop training. You can't continue to do quick athletic movements, for what's supposed to be a month or two. They say you're at risk for up to six months after the antibiotic. So I would get sick, and I would have to stop training. It would feel like I was losing all this progress. Then I'd get better, and after getting back I would start to get stronger again. Then I’d get sick, go on the antibiotics, have to stop training—and start the cycle all over again. So it felt like two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward, one step back.

But I started doing some local competitions and was able to qualify for the regional and world competition. There's actually a Ninja League that operates outside of the show. Think of how there's the NFL, but then there's recreational football leagues, too.

Hayley:

Sure.

Amber:

So there are recreational ninja leagues, and I was able to go to the World Championships in 2018 and 2019. It just lit me on fire even more! That was when I started submitting and applying to be on the show. I didn't get picked the first time I applied. I was still relatively new, didn't have a lot of experience, and then applied for the 2020 season. That was season twelve, and the pandemic hit. So there's no production, nobody's filming anything. I didn't expect to get any calls, and I went into isolation like everyone else. The pandemic is especially scary for someone with a high risk respiratory disease, so I was very isolated. I didn't even go to the grocery store. Then about four months into the shutdown, in June, I got a call from American Ninja Warriors saying they were going to be the first show back in production in the pandemic, and they wanted me on it. I had three weeks before filming.

Hayley:

Oh, my gosh.

Amber:

Okay. So I haven't left the house in four months, and it's not like I've been sitting around eating salad and chicken breast. We've been enjoying pizza and Mexican food and do-it-yourself cocktails. Here we go! I immediately started doing as much as I could to train from home. And the family that owned the Ninja Gym, they were just wonderful. They let me have after hours access to the gym so I could be isolated, but still train. So I would do everything that I needed to during the day with the kids, and the limited photography I was able to do at the time. Then at 10:30 at night, I would head out to train at the gym. I did that for three weeks, and then I got to go to St. Louis and film season twelve. It was amazing. I mean, I've been a fan of the show for ten years, and these celebrity ninjas are like the All Stars. I'm a huge fan, and all of a sudden I was counted among them. There was a hotel in St. Louis that I'm pretty sure only the ninjas had access to. I never really saw other people there, but everything was very COVID locked down. There were COVID tests before you could travel, COVID tests upon getting there, a COVID test after each round of eliminations—it was pretty intensely controlled. Hayley: What was being in that hotel like? Amber: You would be standing in the lobby waiting for the elevator to open and wondering: Who's on the other side? Is it going to be Jesse Graff? Lance Pekus? Grant McCartney? Is it Flex LaBreck? Who's going to be in the elevator! These were the people I've been watching for years and years, and now I was here in this hotel with them, training with them. I got to be partnered up with Najee Richardson, the Flying Phoenix, so he was my training partner and teammate. Season twelve was structured a little differently because of the pandemic. Because of the different structure, I also got to take part in all the b-roll and the interviews, the shots where you see a ninja spinning on the platform with their arms crossed, looking all tough. I got to be a part of all of that. It was just incredible, really. I felt like the dream had come true.

I was living it out. I remember the first night, trying to fall asleep in the hotel, thinking: They're everywhere! Like, there's ninjas above me, below me, to the left, to the right. I can't believe I'm here among these legends. Hayley: What happened once it started? After the competition was prepped? Amber: The course itself didn't go as well as I had hoped. There is so much going on. I mean, so many lights, and you can hear the hosts, and there's cameras everywhere, plus crew everywhere. I had decided I was going to wear my airway clearance vest that I used every night to clear mucus from my lungs. I was going to wear that up onto the starting platform, take it, throw it down in triumph, and then explode out onto the first obstacle. But in the back of my mind, I'm also thinking: Okay, I just have to walk up the stairs. Don't forget to smile. Remember where you're supposed to stop and remember, you have to turn and wave because my family is going to be on the big screen watching.

I ended up making it across the five platform steps, the pretty iconic first obstacle, and jumped for the rope. But I didn't get a solid hold on the rope and didn't have the strength to do it one armed. So I splashed down into the water. It was over so fast, I was kind of in shock. It took me a bit to process it, plus there's so much adrenaline. When you have so much adrenaline and something is over so quick like that, your body just dumps it in emotion. I've seen that at ninja competitions, too. You're pent up with all the adrenaline and then the course is over in three minutes, and it's like your body doesn't know what to do with all this excess energy that it had stored up. So I went to the bathroom and I cried.

Hayley:

Absolutely.

Amber:

Jesse Graff herself, like the most famous of all ninjas, walked out of the bathroom stall and started talking to me and told me that she had fallen on the first obstacle at a huge televised competition once. I just remember thinking to myself, I am getting a pep talk from Jesse Graff right now. She ended up FaceTiming my son Oliver to say hi to him, which just made his day because he's a huge fan. It was really incredible.

Hayley:

Wow. Oh, my word.

Amber:

Yeah.

Hayley: That is a larger than life experience. I'm trying to process what you went through.

Amber:

Yeah, it really was. And I made friends there that I'm still in contact with, it was really incredible.

Hayley:

You've already had this mindset of taking initiative, going out, and keeping that adventurous spirit alive. But is there anything from that specific experience where it changed you somehow? Like maybe, I do this thing differently or I added this extra layer of something into myself. You know what I mean?

Amber:

Yeah. I think it really slingshotted me further into the CF community and into advocacy. I did not know the depth of CF advocacy out there, or how many thousands of people are dedicating their entire personal or professional life to fighting for a cure for this disease, spreading awareness, and raising money and supporting those of us that have CF. Hayley: Were there any similarities between the two communities? Amber: It's interesting because the ninja community felt like such a tight knit community and a welcoming community. Then that really stairsteps me right into the CF advocacy community, and it is giving out the same vibes. We are just like all one big CF tribe helping each other to spread their messages and get their stories out into the world. There are so many inspirational stories, and there are CF warriors out there that just shine. It's been really cool to meet some of those people, and I had a lot of people reach out to me after they saw me on the show. I've now done some interviews and some presentations in the CF community. I've had CF clinics and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation post to my story. I've had a lot of opportunities to step into a role in the CF community that I wouldn't have had otherwise.

Hayley: The reach of that must also come with meeting lots of individual people.

Amber:

I've had a lot of people reach out to me personally that have family members, children with cystic fibrosis, or have CF themselves and tell me that it was inspirational to see me strong and healthy and able to train to do this. At the time I was a 35 year old with cystic fibrosis, and when I was born, my life expectancy was 20. So to be out there at 35 doing this, it gave people a lot of hope. I have had parents of newborns diagnosed at birth just like me reach out and say they had hope for their child's future because they saw what I was able to do.

That feels amazing and humbling, and also inspiring to see that my story can bring hope to others and that hope is just going to build and spread, and build some more. It's great to be able to contribute to that. But I'm also receiving that from these other rock star advocates, and these strong CF warriors that I'm meeting as I'm hearing their stories. They're giving me just as much hope and inspiration. It kind of all goes back to—

Hayley:

I was thinking the same thing.

Amber:

Right? It all goes back to what we're doing with other small businesses. It goes back to how the Ninja community supports each other. I mean, we are in competition against each other, but we will stand on the sidelines to cheer and coach each other through the obstacles. Because in that moment, it's not ninja versus ninja, it's ninja versus the course. And in small businesses, it's not me growing my business. It's our community growing the small businesses. And in the CF community, it's not just me beating this disease. It's all of us fighting for a cure. There are just so many strong communities that I've gotten to be a part of, and I credit American Ninja Warrior with helping me step into that.

Hayley:

I have one last question. If people are reading this and they want to go support the Cystic Fibrosis Community, what can they do?

Amber:

The biggest thing you could do is directly donate to a foundation like the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Hayley:

Sure thing.

Amber:

They are still working on new treatments, and actually have had the biggest breakthrough yet. Just in January of 2020, right before the pandemic hit, a new medication came on the market that is changing and saving lives. Cystic fibrosis patients are coming off of lung transplant lists, but it doesn't work for everybody and it's not a cure. There are still people that are dying fighting this and we're not done. The fight isn't done yet. There's also a book coming out in the spring of 2023 called The CF Warrior Project. This book is actually volume two! Andy Lipman is the author. He also has cystic fibrosis and he has collected stories of CF warriors from around the world and put them together in this book. And I am one of those stories, so I'm very excited to be a part of that. But if you are wanting some inspirational reading oh, my goodness. I feel like my story is just an itty bitty part along with all these other warriors that are out there changing the world.