Community Unites To Help Bayside Hospital Worker Fight Cancer

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — Kisha Anderson didn't want to ask for help after she found out she had breast cancer one year ago. Anderson describes herself as a private person, and she much preferred to keep her diagnosis quiet.

Then two of her coworkers at St. Mary's Hospital for Children in Bayside told her they were setting up a GoFundMe campaign for her as a gesture of love and support. Anderson gave them a tentative okay.

In the throes of the coronavirus pandemic, and as Anderson's cancer spread, the fundraiser has become a way for her family and friends to rally around her from afar — building resources but also building community, from Anderson's church to St. Mary's.

The "Kindness for Kisha" campaign has raised $26,000 of its $30,000 goal.

“I never in my wildest dreams expected such support, to the point where I wouldn’t go on the website, sometimes, to see," Anderson told Patch. "It was just this overwhelming feeling of love.”

Anderson started receiving chemotherapy and immunotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering last month, after an intense first round of chemo to which her body did not respond.

Laura Seiverling, who spent five years working with Anderson at St. Mary's Center for Pediatric Feeding Disorders, said she and another coworker started the fundraiser so everyone in Anderson's life could come together to support her, even during the pandemic.

"If you say, 'let me know what I can do to help,' it puts the burden on them," Seiverling said. "Just do it. Don’t wait for other people to ask you for help.”

Anderson said she has good days and bad days. On the good days, she goes to work, where she serves as a feeding technician for kids who have difficulties eating.

On the bad days, "it’s really hard to explain the feeling that you get," she said. "You just know that something is not right in your body."

She takes comfort in the support system that the fundraising campaign spawned, even though it meant surrendering the privacy that was once her refuge.

Anderson reminds women to do regular breast self-exams and get mammograms, and she encouraged anyone battling diseases like cancer to turn to others for help and support.

“Don’t do it alone," Anderson said. "This is a disease that takes your mind places where sometimes you don’t even want to go. Even if it’s one person you call on for support, do that. Facing it alone it will eat you alive."

Click here for Anderson's GoFundMe page.