Kate Fink is a breast cancer survivor. It is a success she credits, in no small part, to the unlikeliest of people who work at her care center in Buffalo, New York: the hospital valet. <\/p>\n
“Absolutely, I mean he’s made an impact,” the 41-year-old Fink told CBS News of the valet. “Not just me, but so many other people.”<\/p>\n
The person Fink speaks so highly of is Jon Avery, who parks cars at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. <\/p>\n
“There’s always an exception to the rule, right?” Avery said. “So I’m one of the exceptions.”<\/p>\n
He does his job with such joy, such contagious optimism, that if not for the wheelchairs, you would never know some of these people were even sick. He’s just a shining lighthouse of hope in the dark storm of their diagnoses.<\/p>\n
He says his goal when he is interacting with patients is to “have a meaningful encounter that’s not hollow.”<\/p>\n
Avery just kept telling Fink, day after day, to keep pushing, saying, “You got this.”<\/p>\n
And after a while, she believed it. <\/p>\n
“Yeah, it’s just your mindset just kind of changes,” Fink said. <\/p>\n
Fink said she was so grateful for Avery’s kindness and support that she “wanted to do something nice for him.”<\/p>\n
At one point, Avery had mentioned to Fink that he was saving money because he really wanted to attend a Buffalo Bills game. It was just a passing comment, but one that Fink couldn’t pass up.<\/p>\n
So, last month, she and her work colleagues at West Herr Automotive Group raised money, made calls, and got Avery tickets and field passes to a Bills game. <\/p>\n
Avery was beyond grateful, but he said the gesture was hardly necessary.<\/p>\n
“I serve people, that’s what I do,” Avery said. “And if I don’t got nothing else in the world that means anything to anybody, I know I can live in service.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
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