Page 27 - BusinessWest May 11, 2026

and began her college journey in 2012,
not really knowing which direction it
would take. She thought about early
childhood education and other realms
where she could work with children.
But things changed when a friend
talked enthusiastically about her nurs-
ing degree and the work she would be
doing.
So, she decided to pursue a Nursing
degree herself. But there would be life
challenges to confront, including young
children and the availability of child-
care, forcing her to attend at night, a
course or two at a time.
She was making her way toward her
degree, when she was confronted with
a challenge that was formidable as it
was unforeseen.
Indeed, Gray told BusinessWest
that she was driving to class when
she felt a strange lump on her neck. It
would take months before it was offi-
cially determined that she had a large
mass in the center of her chest and
it was cancer, specifically Hodgkins
Franklin Hospital in Greenfield and
is expected to start in August, if not
sooner.
As for that pinning ceremony itself,
she knows it will be an emotional time,
one a world apart from what she was
experiencing a year ago.
“I’ll be standing in the front get-
ting pinned, looking out toward where
was I was standing a year ago, feel-
ing hopeless, that my dreams were
unfairly ripped away from me,” she
said. “This year, I’m going to be stand-
ing there, thinking about all the things
I’ve endured in my life. Being able to
get back up and do it ... I’m grateful
for that, so it will be a very emotional
moment.”
Putting her long journey into per-
spective, she said there are lessons
for others — about not giving up and
not letting go of dreams, even when
the obstacles seem insurmountable,
but also about listening to those who
provide encouragement and taking full
advantage of the many resources avail-
able to those who want to pursue their
own goals.
Her message to all is summed up in
a scholarship essay she wrote and read
at a ceremony for scholarship recipi-
ents in 2024, well before her cancer
diagnosis. Here’s a passage:
“Thinking back to all I’ve survived,
the common denominator is clear, it’s
resilience. Life has thrown many curve-
balls my way and I’ve had to fight like
hell to get back up each time. Some hit
way harder than others, which made
getting back up increasingly more dif-
ficult, but the alternative seemed worse.
Staying down meant giving up on
myself, and for a time, I did give up. ...
Thankfully, I woke up and decided that
enough was enough. I had finally come
to the realization that the only thing
holding me back was myself.”
She stopped holding herself back
long ago, and in the years to come she
determined that nothing else would her
hold her back. Not even cancer. BW
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“I’ll be standing in the front
getting pinned, looking
out toward where was I was
standing a year ago, feeling
hopeless, that my dreams
were unfairly ripped away
from me.”
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Lymphoma. She remembers telling
a close friend that she would have to
drop out of nursing school to battle
the disease.
And it was early in the treatment
stage that she ventured to the nurse-
pinning ceremony, a time when she
was not at all sure she would survive
the cancer, let alone return to school
and complete her degree program.
“I was so close ... I was one semes-
ter away from graduating, I was cross-
ing that finish line,” she recalled.
“And I got hit with that. I was pretty
depressed for a long time, and I was
convinced that I was never going
to be a nurse; I had worked toward
something since 2016 that was my
dream, and now it was ripped out of
my hands and gone forever.”
Until it wasn’t, thanks to those
words of encouragement from Kas-
sidi and Gray’s own determination to
move forward with her last semester
of work, even as she was still waiting
to find out conclusively if she was in
remission.
As the 2026 nurse-pinning cer-
emony approaches, Gray has been
doing some reflecting, while also get-
ting on with the next stages of her
journey.
Indeed, as she braces for the
National Council Licensure Exam
(NCLEX), she has been offered a job
on the mental health unit at Baystate
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MONTHLY FEATURE 27
MAY 11, 2026