<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1Mw0b9_0w1pnIi700" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1Mw0b9_0w1pnIi700" width="1512" height="1008" ><figcaption>Kelley Bernard</figcaption></figure>WINCHESTER - Kelley Bernard, a pediatric nurse practitioner who grew up in Winchester with her parents and four siblings, will be stepping into the boxing ring this Thursday, Oct. 10, at the MGM Music Hall in Fenway to combat cancer and raise money for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.Bernard has a unique story as she is a cancer survivor herself and went through patient programming at Haymakers for Hope, which introduced her to boxing. Haymakers for Hope is a charity organization that empowers people to rise to a competitive challenge while raising money for cancer-related charities.Haymakers for Hope held their first boxing event in 2011 and has raised over $32 million for cancer research, awareness, survivorship, and care. Haymakers are currently accepting registrations from everyday professionals in the Greater Boston area who have no prior boxing experience and are eager to learn the art of boxing. Participants will have the chance to train at local partner gyms over four months, ending in a live fight night at the MGM Music Hall before a sold-out crowd and raising money for a cure.Bernard’s parents still live in the house where she grew up in Winchester. Her mother owns and runs a dance studio with her older sister. Bernard graduated from Winchester High School in 2010 and moved to Boston in 2016 after obtaining a nursing job at Boston Children’s Hospital. Currently, she lives in Watertown with her fiancé.When Bernard was 15, she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. In March of her freshman year of high school, she started experiencing significant fatigue and didn’t feel like herself. Multiple visits to the pediatrician without answers resulted in her mom bringing her straight to Boston Children’s Hospital, where she was diagnosed.She was immediately admitted to the hospital that same day and started chemotherapy within 24 hours. The treatment is about two years long, with the first year consisting of intense chemotherapy. She wasn’t able to attend her sophomore year of high school and returned part-time during her junior year. She completed both her sophomore and junior year classes online and was able to return to school to finish her senior year with her classmates.During her intense treatment, her family was her biggest support system. Her siblings and parents were incredible, especially considering she spent almost 200 days in the hospital during that first year. Her mother never left her side, and her father held all of their lives together, Bernard stated.She noted that “my siblings were my social circle and my comic relief and lifted me on my absolute worst days. I think they are really what kept me going because they never doubted that this was just a speed bump in my life.”Bernard’s short-term advice for anyone actively undergoing treatment is to find something every day that brings you joy or gives you something to look forward to. For the long term, especially for teens or young adults facing this diagnosis, it is important not to let this diagnosis define you or dictate what you can or cannot do.She noted that “cancer wreaks absolute havoc on your body but also your mind, and it’s easy to fall into this dark place where you feel like you’ve lost yourself. It can take time, but it can be used as an opportunity to soul search and discover and decide who you want to be after an experience like this. And the best part is that you get to decide.”As a 16-year-old cancer patient, Bernard knew that she wanted a career in nursing. She graduated from Saint Anselm College in 2014 and accepted a staff nurse position on the Hematology/Oncology floor at BCH in 2016. During the COVID lockdown, she decided to go back to school to get her Master’s degree and became a nurse practitioner in 2022.Currently, she works as a nurse practitioner on a small team called the Pain Service, caring for any child within the hospital who is experiencing significant pain, including those on the Oncology service.Bernard is relatively new to boxing, as this will be her first-time boxing at the “Belles of the Brawl” event. She heard about this event through two of her former co-workers who have taken part in it, and then her fiancé who took part in it two years ago.She noted that participants are given four months of intense boxing training to prepare for Fight Night while also given a platform to spread awareness and raise money for a cancer charity of their choice. Bernard started taking boxing for fitness classes last year and loved them.Last February, she heard about the Haymakers for Hope fight-continued program and started participating in that in April. The Fight-Continued program is a free 16-week no-contact boxing training program for anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer. Participants are given gloves and wraps and are introduced to the sport of boxing through bag work, mitt work, and drills.The best part of the program, according to Bernard, is that it does not matter your fitness level or where in your cancer journey you are.She said, “The purpose of the program is to reclaim your body from this terrible disease and just have the space to get out your anger or frustration or even joy! The time that you spend in the gym is completely yours.”Bernard commented that more information is available on the Haymakers for Hope website, and she would also be open to speaking with anyone interested.Bernard has doubled her fundraising goal! She is very excited about doing so and noted that the charity she is supporting is the Alex’s Team Foundation, which is an incredible organization that provides support to pediatric cancer patients and families but also provides support to the pediatric oncology nurses who are caring for this population at Boston Children’s Hospital. She knows first-hand how incredible these nurses are, but also how emotionally taxing that profession can be. She noted that it was such an easy charity to support, and its mission was so special that it was an honor to spread its cause and so easy for everyone to want to support it.She is psyched for this event. Having been to the event before, she knows that it’s going to be “absolutely electric.” She said that even though it is a competitive event, she feels that all of the women taking part are already winners because they made it through four months of intense training and have collectively raised almost $500,000 for various cancer charities.Bernard “can’t wait for fight night!”</div></body>

Mountain View, CA

NewsBreak

Winchester native and cancer survivor Kelley Bernard gears up for Haymakers for Hope 2024 “Belles of the Brawl” boxing fundraiser

WINCHESTER - Kelley Bernard, a pediatric nurse practitioner who grew up in Winchester with her parents and four siblings, will be stepping into the boxing ring this Thursday, Oct. 10, at the MGM Music Hall in Fenway to combat cancer and raise money for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Bernard...

Winchester native and cancer survivor Kelley Bernard gears up for Haymakers for Hope 2024 “Belles of the Brawl” boxing fundraiser

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