Estimated read time: 8-9 minutes
OGDEN — Chickaordery Vivian Ukabi leaned over her iPad, drawing pictures of her mother holding a child, sketching each line carefully with the Apple Pencil.
When she sketches, she feels calm, she says; the art helps her feel relief from a lifelong stomach illness that has prevented her from eating enough and attending school.
But the art doesn't just give her peace — it earned her the money she needed to make it to Istanbul, Turkey, for life-changing stomach surgery.
After having lived with stomach pains and problems her entire life, the 33-year-old had searched for doctors in Cameroon, Nigeria, and the U.S., to find someone that could give her an operation. Cameroonian doctors told her that they could not perform the complex plastic surgeries, she said, so she made contact with a doctor at Mercy Hospital in Miami, Florida, who confirmed he could perform two surgeries to resolve the issue.
There was only one problem: the two surgeries, lodging, food and travel would cost Ukabi $40,000 — and she didn't have that kind of money.
Then she met Ben Taylor, of Ogden.
Turning lives around
Taylor was no stranger to strange emails. He'd often search his spam folder, even posting YouTube videos about messaging scammers to get to know them.
"What I do on my channel is investigate scams. And so when I got this message, I took it upon myself to just really dig into her claims and try to figure out if it was genuine, or not," he said.
And what came to pass actually wasn't the first time Taylor helped change someone's life through his YouTube channel. In 2017, he helped Joel, a Liberian who had sent an email scam, by instructing him on how to take photos, and then compiling some of Joel's best photographs into a book (with some of Taylor's followers participating in the graphic design process).
After Taylor and some of his followers helped sell the book on Indiegogo, Joel then reaped half of the rewards.
Two years later, in 2019, Ukabi reached out to Taylor.
"My brother Stanley watched Mr. Ben on YouTube channel how he helped Joel in Liberia. He saw Mr. Ben's email address through his YouTube channel," Ukabi said in a message to KSL.com. "My brother and my family couldn't stand the pains I'm going through, so my brother then told me to try to write to him, which I did in October 2019."
That's when Taylor received a long email titled, "AN APPEAL FOR HELP ON MY HEALTH," which also stated that it was not a scam. Intrigued, he read through Ukabi's plea.
"Please I appeal to you for help in this my desparate condition; I have undergone several medication check-up but no avail; they all suggested me to go for a plastic surgery to a competent hospital, because I have a deep and large scar on the right side of my stomach," Ukabi's email said. "This ugly situation was a result of the wrong medication given to me at my tender age, which caused me to have a swollen, big abcess and left a deep wound on my stomach."
The email also had a couple of pictures attached showing her deep scar.
After he got the email, Taylor wasn't initially sure how to respond; he closed his laptop and went about his day.
But he said he couldn't ignore the pictures of her deep scars and, after discovering the legitimacy of her claims by contacting her doctor in Miami and confirming with other contacts in Cameroon about her condition, he decided to help her.
Taylor also knew that just asking others to raise money wouldn't solve the problems.
"I just think that we have to do something more than a simple GoFundMe. There are just so many stories out there and people who are in need of help, but I don't think a GoFundMe is going to be enough to get someone to help that they need," Taylor said. "I want people to learn how to solve their own problems. And I think that by embracing technology and learning new skills, and being creative, you can solve real, hard problems in your life."
Painting her pains
When Taylor asked Ukabi if she had any schooling or job experience, she noted that her stomach pains had prevented her from finishing high school.
He then asked about her talents and Ukabi said she loves art. He encouraged her to send some pictures telling her life story, particularly the struggles with her stomach.
Ukabi began sending him drawings of her childhood, her family and a possible future where she could get her surgery in the U.S.
As she sent image after image, Taylor realized that while he couldn't pay for the surgery or give her the money, there was potential in her art getting her the money she needed, he said.
So, he decided to take a page out of his own book — and focus on helping Ukabi publish a book, but this time, featuring her drawings.
"I came to the realization that you couldn't mass produce little sketches with charcoal that she was doing for us," Taylor said. "We needed to digitize them somehow."
That's when Taylor bought an iPad and Apple Pencil for Ukabi to use. Over the next few weeks, Taylor taught her how to digitize her art by sending videos of him drawing with the iPad and pencil.
When Taylor told Ukabi about the ability to digitize and sell her art, and how he would help get her an iPad, she was overjoyed.
"I was so excited that day, and I could not believe my dream has come true. I had tears in my eyes. I could not hold it; it was too much for me. My family were also happy," Ukabi said.
After sketching for weeks, Ukabi finally compiled a book, "It Shall Come to Pass," in which she wrote about her thoughts about faith, God, her stomach and her search for medical relief — detailing each experience with emotional drawings.
Taylor then printed the book on Smartpress in early 2020, with the help of some of his followers — and sold her compilation for $12 a book.
"We had a lot of people around the world who just took interest in her story and were interested in supporting her — and within just a couple of weeks we were able to raise the $40,000 that she needed for the surgery," Taylor said. "I think a lot of times we just get stuck in our lives and we just think that we are limited by our circumstances, we're limited by our education.
"Her story teaches us that that's not true. You can always learn something new. You can always improve yourself. And you can change your situation."
Living life in peace
Immediately after Ukabi got the funding she needed, the COVID-19 pandemic hit — and, despite having enough money, Ukabi could not travel to the U.S. because the embassy denied her visit between May and June of 2022.
Taylor said the denial likely came because officials didn't believe Ukabi would return to her country after the surgery.
"The doctor in Miami was willing to do the surgery, but the U.S. Embassy turned me down for no good reasons, while I already have my sponsor who will take charge of the surgery," Ukabi said. "So I don't know why the U.S. Embassy didn't approve me to have a medical visa in Cameroon. It really hurts me a lot. I only want to get the surgery and be free like others — live my life in peace."
In February 2023, almost two years after she received the funding, Ukabi found a surgeon in Istanbul that was willing to help her, and she was able to get her medical visa approved.
This month, Ukabi and Taylor traveled to Istanbul, where she will stay for the two surgeries and reside there for six months during her recovery. She will have a tissue expander installed and then enlarged once a week for four to six months to help healthy tissue grow around her stomach.
"After the surgery, I would feel happiness and relief from the stress I have felt all my life," Ukabi wrote in her book. "With no more pains in my stomach, I could walk down the road in Cameroon with a smile on my face, rejoicing with those I love most."
Taylor said that while he provided a few resources to Ukabi, she earned her own surgery.
"This isn't a story about a poor woman who needed help and I came in and rescued her," he said. "I don't see myself as kind of a savior or someone who's just done a fundraiser for her. I just introduced her to a new way of thinking and now she knows that she's capable of doing hard things. She worked hard and she deserves every penny that she gets."
