The Community

How Hoddy is Doing

August 9, 2014

Two months ago, I wrote you about Hoddy Potter, the owner of the two Kansas City Bar Method studios, having been diagnosed with stage 4 non-hodgins lymphoma in March. Since then, many of you have asked how she’s doing, and I’d like to give you an update.

Hoddy as Katy Perry

It’s no surprise to all of us who know Hoddy that she is beating down her adversary like a Ninja warrior. She has exercised, taught class, raised money for lymphoma research, and reached out to the people in her life with surprise gifts and funny notes. One day last month for example, our staff members at Bar Method Headquarters all received a Starbucks gift card from Hoddy with the inscription:

“It’s Summer! Go get a COOL drink on me….Whoops!…It’s summer in San Francisco, go get a HOT drink on me…”

We got a laugh and a warm drink on an actually freezing San Francisco summer day.

In spite of Hoddy’s initial hopes, her chemo treatments did end up causing her to lose her hair. Undaunted, she seized the opportunity to channel her inner fashionista, teaching Bar Method classes in a procession of wigs, scarves, bands, bangles and brazen baldness. She even made this hilarious dance video of her various looks.

Watch the video:

One day in early July, one of Hoddy’s friends asked if she could treat Hoddy to a pedicure. Hoddy wasn’t feeling her best and considered begging off but decided to go anyway. She and her friend were on their way to the nail salon when suddenly over 100 people – friends, family and her Bar Method community – crystalized into a flash mob in her honor. Her husband and three children, as well as a local TV channel, appeared on the scene to share the moment with her.

See Channel 9’s coverage of the flash mob.

So how is Hoddy doing? Since her diagnosis in March, she has completed five out of six scheduled chemo treatments. Two weeks ago, she texted my husband and me good news from her doctors on the results so far. “Hi guys. Latest cat scan says I’m on target and reduction of tumors is 80 to 90 percent. Everyone is pumped but on course I am waiting to hear the ALL CLEAR still. Xo”

After her final treatment, she says, she will have a definitive “big scary PET scan that determines the rest of my life.”

I asked her how she keeps her spirits up during all this, and she told me, “I feel the most supported when I am at work. The positive and passionate energy of the clients and my fellow co-works keep me inspired and supported.”