Fellow Mello Faces AML Challenges

I am starting this fundraiser to help an amazing friend and fellow mellophone player, Althea Mazar. On top of already being a long time MS (multiple sclerosis) survivor, she has been battling blood cancer, AML (acute myeloid leukemia) since March 2022. Already in her journey to get well, she has had multiple rounds of intense chemotherapy, requiring long hospital stays.

The next phase of treatment involves a bone marrow transplant that will take place at the Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, NJ, approximately an hour away from home. She will be in the hospital for almost one month for the procedure and treatment and then must live close to the hospital for frequent outpatient appointments. During this time, her immune system is starting over, and she will eventually have to receive all of her childhood vaccines again. For the first 30 days after she moves into her apartment near the hospital, she will not be able to be alone in case she has a reaction to the treatment.

Althea has been living alone since her long time companion, Tom “Bucky” Swan passed away in 2013. Not wanting to disrupt the lives of her family and friends, she has decided to hire help while living in Hackensack.

The funds raised here will go directly towards her living expenses in Hackensack as well as anti-rejection medications that will not be covered by insurance. The costs are estimated to be approximately $30,000.

Althea has been involved in the drum and bugle corps activity since she was in the Edison Saints junior corps as a teenager. She is a talented mellophone player who has won several individual contests in her youth. She was among the first women to join the Reading Buccaneers brass line and also served as business manager of the corps. She also marched a couple of years with the New York Skyliners and many years with a parade corps called the Melrose Blackhawks from Sayreville, NJ. She was inducted into both the New Jersey Drum Corps Hall of Fame and the Reading Buccaneers Hall of Fame. Currently, Althea is a member of the Audubon Bon Bons chorus, the New York Skyliners chorus, and the Shore Voices chorus of Middletown, NJ as well as being a member of the Reading Buccaneers Alumni Corps.

Althea is a life long donor to many nonprofit organizations that do everything from curing diseases to saving animals from harm. She needs our help right now. Please contribute what you can. Thank you!