BUFFALO, N.Y. — "Surprise!” shouted a group of co-workers at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
You could tell by the look on her face, Kelly Englert Flak, RN, MSN, OCN was not expecting to be chosen as the 2024 Ride for Roswell Torch Lighter.
Kelly has worked at Roswell Comprehensive Cancer Center for 18 years, starting as a nurse in the intensive care unit. She'll be the first to tell you, she loves her job.
“It’s just something that I get gratification from with not expecting anything in return. It just makes me happy," Kelly Englert Flak said.
“She's just a wonderful woman. Not just because she's my mom. She's just … she's the person that you can go to. And she's more than deserving,” adds her daughter Kendall Flak.
Being the Torch Lighter is a special honor bestowed on someone whose cancer journey is an inspiration to others. But until 2020, the Flak’s never could have imagined Kelly would need to use her nursing skills so close to home.
“I got a call from my daughter's fiancé at the time and said, ‘We're taking Kaitland to the hospital. She had a seizure.’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’"
Kelly immediately drove to Pittsburgh to be with her oldest daughter, 29-year-old Kaitland. Soon after, an MRI showed Kaitland had a brain tumor and would need surgery.
"It was heartbreaking to say the least," Flak said.
This was the height of COVID, so after Kaitland's surgery to remove the cancerous tumor, Kelly traveled back and forth from Buffalo for about six months, to help while Kaitland underwent chemotherapy and radiation. She made a great recovery.
“I was so relieved. But when you let your guard down, well, you don't let your guard down when you have cancer," Flak said.
Kelly never turned her back on Kaitland's cancer, but right around the time of her daughter's diagnosis, Kelly notice a cough that would not go away. A mammogram showed Kelly had lung cancer, stage four. But that was not about to stop her.
“I did what I was supposed to do. I did my treatments. I did what the doctors told me to do. But sometimes I would overdo it but I couldn't help it. That's the ‘mom’ part of me,” she added.
Kelly's mothering and expert care paid off. Kaitland was in full remission for a full year. But in November of 2022 another brain tumor appeared. This one even more aggressive.
There was a second surgery and this time Kaitland's recovery was rough. Kelly brought her back to Buffalo so that her extended family, and her Roswell family, could rally behind them both.
“I said, ‘I was there when she took her first breath and I was there when she took her last.’ Is it OK to cry on camera?" Flak said while choking back tears.
Kaitland went into hospice and passed away in January of 2024. Kelly says she'll be honoring Kaitland's journey as well as her own when she lights that torch at the Celebration of Hope on Friday night.
“I feel like I have a mission and it’s to let people know that they can persevere, and they can push through. They can have some type of normalcy and still have hope that they can be here for their family and their loved ones," she said.