Published: July 25, 2007 09:32 am         

Medical fund established to help health care worker

WESTERNPORT - A medical fund has been established to help a Potomac Valley Hospital employee continue her six-year battle with colon cancer.

Mary Ann Kelly, an admissions registrar with more than 30 years of service at the Keyser, W.Va., hospital, was informed last week that her insurance benefits for the current year have been exhausted. Currently hospitalized, her oncologist had told her only a week before, that because of her medical problems, she no longer can work.

Linda Adams, Kelly's supervisor and friend, established the medical fund, noting that Kelly continued to work over the course of her illness and missed little work.

"Mary Ann has taken minimal sick time following two surgeries resulting from colon cancer," Adams said. "She additionally has continued to work through numerous cycles of chemotherapy and most often received chemotherapy on her days off."

Adams called Kelly a "woman of great faith" who is committed to family, including siblings Charles "Tom" Kelly and Ellen, with whom she shares a home in Westernport. Kelly also has cared for patients in the work place, many who were less ill than she.

"Still, she greeted them in her kind and compassionate manner," Adams said. "Occasionally, Mary Ann could be found touching the hand and sharing with those patients who have come to know her personally and/or share her medical condition. Mary Ann is also a very proud woman of dignity and strength.

"Mary Ann has given so unselfishly of herself over the years; now is the time for the tides to turn - a time to return in prayer and deed that of which I know she would do for any of us," Adams said.

Contributions may be sent to the Mary Ann Kelly Medical Fund, FNB Bank, Fort Ashby Branch, P.O. Box 1037, Romney, WV 26757.