Paying it Forward for Patients
Meet Celeste! In her role at BeiGene, Celeste oversees a team of oncology nurses who connect patients to various support services, including psychosocial and financial support. As a cancer survivor, she knows as well as anyone how essential those services can be.
Celeste lives in San Francisco, California, but her favorite place is Greece, where her parents were born. She loves soaking up the sun and swimming in the Aegean Sea.
*The Acropolis overlooks homes in Athens, Greece.
Back home in California, Celeste enjoys commuting to the BeiGene office in San Mateo via bicycle – a ride that’s over more than an hour-and-a-half long. As a long-distance cyclist, Celeste says she wishes she “never got tired so she could cycle morning, noon, and night.”
One of BeiGene’s values is putting patients first, which takes on a deeper meaning for Celeste as a cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with a solid-tumor cancer in 1974 and treated for metastases in her lungs and hundreds of lymph nodes until reaching remission in 2000. She knows how the psychosocial support of the cancer community contributed to her overall treatment and wellbeing.
“I’m fortunate to have had good family support, but I also did use the cancer support community,” Celeste says. “I wouldn’t be here without it, because I was so tired that I had given up at one point.”
Among the many things Celeste enjoys about her job as a director of Patient Services & Distribution Operations is hearing patients’ stories and listening to patients who say they’re doing well on BeiGene’s innovative medicines.
“I have one of the best jobs ever,” she says. “My role is dedicated to managing nurses who support cancer patients – and I can’t think of anything better.”
Celeste says she “pays it forward” for patients by coming in each day with a unique and empathetic perspective, and is thankful for the opportunity to help cancer patients.
*Celeste poses atop Mt. Rose, near Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
