Helping Laurie Mazza fight Bone Marrow Cancer

Hello, my name is Zack Mazza and i'm fundraising for my mother, Laurie Mazza. A little backstory on my mom and our family will follow. She was born December 12th, 1964 in Waco, Texas; and has lived here her whole life. Growing up she always loved to be outside and doing fun activities, her dad would take her fishing at Lake Waco almost everyday during her childhood. My Mom and my Dad have been married for 30+ years and are wonderful parents to 3 boys; Rickey (the oldest), James (middle), and then me (Zack the youngest). Throughout our childhood Mom and Dad sacrificed money, time, and relaxation to make our lives the best they could be. With 3 children, especially boys, involved in school activities and sports my parents were non-stop on the move to take us kids around Waco or even hours away for our endeavors. They supported us endlessly through anything and everything we wanted to do and never complained all whilst having to wake up and go to work everyday to provide for the family. Since that is a little backstory on the family I'd like to highlight my mother, Laurie Mazza. She worked at a place in Waco called Waco Center for Youth for over 35+ years. She was forced to retire in 2019 due to illnesses and complications with her health. Since my birth in 1997 she has been battling Lupus (an autoimmune disease and autoimmune deficiency in which the body basically fights against itself instead of protecting itself), this Lupus flared up dramatically in 2019 and has been giving her problems to present day. Along with Lupus, Laurie has been diagnosed with many other medical conditions including Congestive Heart Failure, Steven Johnson Syndrome, and most recently and most importantly Myelodisplasia Syndrome aka MDS (Cancer of the Bone Marrow). My mother has been diagnosed with many other things but to keep it as short and sweet as possible these are a few of the main things that have plagued her life after retirement. She also has been wheelchair-bound for the past 2 years with the inability to walk on her own accord. Traveling to and from appointments has become a hardship on her and I've (Zack) been her primary caretaker and caregiver at home; giving her medicine on a regular basis, curing to her wounds, and making sure we get to the appointments on time! Since her recent diagnosis in January 2023 of MDS (Bone Marrow Cancer), we have had to make trips to see specialists on the north side of Dallas, TX which abodes a 2 hour trip as long as traffic is decent. My mother is requiring a bone marrow transplant later this year (more details to come unsure of date and time) luckily enough and God-willing the doctors found some half-matches/matches in the family that submitted blood work to be a donor, and also some matches were found in the national donor registry for bone marrow. After a couple of weeks (here recently in May) we found out that I (Zack, her youngest son) was the best match according the Bone Marrow specialist Dr. Mathews. In the coming weeks and months Laurie and I will be going through organ testing to make sure everything is compatible and her body is willing and healthy enough to accept my bone marrow. With this transplant procedure she has to endure more rounds of chemotherapy to "kill" her immune system so it can accept mine. The timetable for this is 1-2 months of close hospitalization for her "hard" chemo and another 30-90 days of supervision after transplant success in Dallas. With this time table I will be in Dallas with her without an income flow to provide for hospital bills, housing, and food costs. I've talked to my Mom and Dad and they are very grateful for any kind of help that they recieve, at first they were not keen to the idea of me starting a GoFundMe because they are not normally ones to ask for help and are very prideful and hard-working individuals, but in the recent months I've explained to them that this might help eleviate some stress.

Thank you for even considering donating, we know everyone has their own hardships going on in their own life any support you give is appreciated more than you will ever know.

Fundraiser is kept up with by: Zack Mazza