At 41, Keia Goode has faced more than most will in a lifetime: homelessness, professional cheerleading, brain surgery, parenthood, and radiation. Yet nothing in her bright smile or kind demeanor reveals the challenges she’s overcome.
Fourteen years ago, just twenty-four hours after giving birth to her first child, Keia experienced a grand mal seizure, now called a tonic-clonic seizure. The frightening episode ultimately saved her life. Tests revealed an orange-sized tumor in her frontal lobe that had been silently growing for a decade.
“I had migraines, but doctors told me to drink water and not stress,” she recalls. A lifelong athlete, Keia had been a varsity cheer captain in both high school and college. “It was important to me to stay healthy and fit.”
As one of four daughters raised by a single mother who worked two jobs, Keia learned resilience early. “We were homeless a few times, would go without food often, used candles because we couldn’t afford electricity, and washed our clothes in the tub,” she says. “It was important to my mother that we continued to thrive.”
Doctors couldn’t remove the entire tumor during the surgery, but Keia refused to slow down. Just six weeks later, she was back at work. “Getting back helped me move forward and not let my circumstances bring me down,” she says.
Two years later, after welcoming her second child, Keia learned the tumor had returned. This time, doctors recommended a gamma knife procedure, using beams of gamma radiation to target the tumor while she remained awake, attached to the table through screws in her skull. “It was terrifying,” she admits. “When doctors told me I had almost lost all of my motor function, I knew I needed to keep moving forward, physically and mentally.”
As her body healed, Keia felt drawn back to one of her first passions: professional cheerleading. “I thought I’d just be a mom and work my job,” she says. “But I needed to do something for me.”
With two young children, one brain surgery, and radiation therapy behind her, and teammates over 10 years her junior, Keia began training. She turned chores into workouts and ran around with her son after dropping her daughter at school. “He’d say, ‘Move your booty,’ and I’d tell him, ‘I’m almost there,’” ditching the stroller to carry him on her shoulders for added weight. As he grew bigger, she grew stronger, until his first day of preschool.
“It was something I had to check off my list,” she says. “I kept my goals in mind, stayed positive, and never took failure as an excuse to stop.”
Keia went on to cheer professionally for the San Diego Gulls Hockey Team and the San Diego Guardians for two seasons. “I loved the crowd interaction and seeing children light up at the games,” she says. “It meant a lot when moms told me they wished they could look like that. I’d tell them, ‘I’m a mom too — we’re the same age.’ I wanted them to see what’s possible.”
Through it all, Keia credits her husband and partner of 24 years for his unwavering support — but says her motivation comes from within. “I always wanted more for myself than what I came from,” she explains. “That helped me persevere. I didn’t want to blame anyone. I just wanted to show what’s possible.”
Today, Keia continues to stay active with daily, 15-minute workouts and a simple rule: movement counts, no matter what. “When I sweep, I crunch my core; when I do laundry, I lift,” she says.
Keia Goode is proof that strength is not only built in the gym, but in everyday moments, and in the decision to see the good in everything.
By Shlomit Ovadia
Photo by William Laurence Portrait Art
MUSE Project: WilliamLaurence.co/40muse
