BY BEN VERDE
& MEAGHAN MCGOLDRICK
The offi ce of Dr. John Kehoe’s
Breast Center in Bay
Ridge was bathed in bright
pink on a recent Saturday
in observation of Breast
Cancer Awareness
Month.
The breast cancer
center on Third Avenue
put on the
display for the
fi rst time in
2019, but had to
put it on pause
in 2020 due to
the pandemic. They brought it
back in 2021 for its second iteration
after a whirlwind two
years for the practice.
Kehoe said the practice
plans to expand the light show
in the future to include neighboring
businesses, and put
more of an emphasis on the center’s
“survivorship program.”
“We’ve been at this for about
30 years,” he said of the program,
built around Breast Cancer
Awareness Month. In 2015,
the center started promoting
COURIER L 14 IFE, OCTOBER 15-21, 2021
their “Selfi es With
Survivors” initiative,
in which Kehoe
would bring in a
survivor, have them
take a selfi e and ask
them to write about
their experience battling
the disease.
“It’s important for
people going through
it to see that there is
hope,” the doctor said,
stressing how hard that
can be to convey to patients
who are just receiving their
diagnosis. “But, as time goes
on, as therapy goes on and as
they hear these other stories,
so many of them realize it is
survivable.”
As for this year’s lighting,
Kehoe said, the team was glad
to be able to do something at all
Dr. John Kehoe (fourth from right) with staffers and supporters at his offi ce lighting. Photo by Arthur de Gaeta
to mark the month of October.
“Next year we expect it to
be even bigger,” he said. “But
what we were able to do this
year was nice.”
This year’s lighting comes
as the practice continues to
deal with the challenges of operating
during the pandemic,
during which they have stayed
open and operating nearly the
entire time, though not without
roadblocks. After receiving
essential worker status
in March 2020 which allowed
them to stay open and treat
patients, a number of staffers
at the center, including Dr.
Kehoe, fell ill with the virus,
forcing them to shutter temporarily
and delay treatment on
about a dozen developing cancer
cases.
They were able to reopen
in May 2020 at half capacity,
but fear of the virus remained
present. Kehoe says they now
operate at roughly three quarters
capacity, with a slew of
new safety measures to keep
the offi ce safe including daily
midday fumigations.
“It’s a different offi ce,” Kehoe
said. “I think we’ve landed
on our feet, but the ground
we’re on has changed.”
While the offi ce has dealt
with its own challenges, those
battling breast cancer are
facing their own heightened
struggles, some of which the
doctor suspects are the result
of delaying care.
“I don’t know if this is pandemic
related but we’re seeing
worse cases,” he said.
Kehoe encouraged prospective
patients to fi nd a center
that is taking proper COVID
precautions — and not to delay
treatment
“Do your best to come in
and just make sure that the
center — wherever you go —
is taking precautions, however
you feel about those precautions,”
he said. “We’ll
never get back to fully normal,
I don’t think, but let’s do it as
best we can.”
Bay Ridge breast
cancer center goes
pink for October