'Alaskan Bush People's Billy Brown Opens Up About Wife Ami's Cancer

08/31/2017 03:32 pm EDT

Ever since Alaskan Bush People's Ami Brown was diagnosed with lung cancer, her husband Billy has been right by her side. Billy and the rest of the Brown Family - pictured in the photo gallery here - are making sure to see this battle through to the end.

Ami's fight has been especially tough on Billy, not because he had to give up things he loved about his life, but he's had to watch the woman he loves go through something so painful and devastating.

In a recent interview with People, Billy opened up about Ami's sickness for the first time. He started out by revealing that, while Ami is the one fighting the disease, she's been keeping him afloat.

"The doctor came in and said 'You're giving her so much support' and I said, 'She's the one holding me up,'" Billy told the interviewer.

He went on to say that Ami is an incredibly strong woman, and this whole process has found him admiring her even more than he already did.

"She's the strongest person I know, so if she's saying it hurts, it really hurts. She tries to hide it from everybody but four or five times a day she bends over like a baby and cries. She bends over and tears run down. She put out seven babies without a grunt. I've always had a lot of respect for Ami, but I've got a lot more now. She makes me feel like a wuss."

When faced with the decision to move away from their home in Alaska, Billy said that he and Ami's children ultimately made the decision.

"The kids really made that decision. We saw Ami slow down so fast. She started out 128 lbs. and she dropped to 89 really fast. Last winter was really hard on her. [Our son Bear] got really mad one day. I was pretty bad and mom was pretty bad and he started right then, "How long are we going to do this?" Once we knew what Ami had, Bear was adamant. We had talked about it before and when we sat down realized and made the decision, it wasn't like it came out of nowhere. We've always told the kids they don't have to follow our lives. We moved out there because we wanted to. They just came along and we have been so proud that they wanted to stay with us as long as they did out there but it was time. We had to make this move to do what's best for Ami."

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