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Community Corner

Remembering a Life by Giving

The Mary Anne Mazanec Ovarian Cancer Foundation reaches sufferers in financial need.

It could be said that chocolate ice cream brought Tom and Mary Anne Mazanec together in 1971.

Tom was beginning his sophomore year at Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and he and some other members of the school’s band had become friendly during freshman year.

“In between classes, some of us met up in a room, and Mary Anne had come along. She was eating chocolate ice cream. She asked me if I wanted some, and I said, ‘I don’t like chocolate ice cream.’”

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Tom chuckles at the memory. “She thought that I was being contentious.”

Different tastes in ice cream didn’t deter a romance; by senior year, Tom and Mary Anne had gotten engaged. They had their wedding on Aug. 10, 1974, two months after graduation. The couple settled in Cinnaminson and raised two children.

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A Silent Stalker
Tragedy first struck the Mazanec family in August 2005. After returning home from a vacation, Mary Anne felt bloating in her abdominal area. A diagnosis confirmed ovarian cancer.

When asked, most people will say they know someone who has had breast cancer. But, when it comes to ovarian cancer, most people will say they have known someone who has died of it.

Ovarian cancer is an insidious attacker, with nearly 21,000 women a year being diagnosed, according to the American Cancer Society. It sometimes fails to reveal itself until an end-stage diagnosis is ominously confirmed, with more than 90 percent of women losing their fight.

Although the prognosis wasn’t good, Mary Anne never gave up and continued her battle undergoing surgery and chemotherapy.

“There was one time when we thought she would be a candidate for a clinical trial at Penn. But, unfortunately, she never qualified for the trial because the cancer had spread to her liver,” said Tom. “Up to that point, we always had hope, but now we knew she was really sick. That was a hard time.”

Standing Out Among Us
After Mary Anne died in August 2008, Tom, a computer technician, approached his kids and Mary Anne’s five siblings about establishing an organization to help women with ovarian cancer.

“Mary Anne was an incredible giver,” Tom said. “If I had to tell you what her hobby was, besides some crocheting, Mary Anne loved to help people. She was the true friend of the friendless.”

Tom knew he needed to keep Mary Anne’s legacy of giving alive.

For over 30 years, Mary Anne celebrated life by holding jobs that helped people. Early on, she was a teacher at in Cinnaminson, and she worked as a special-education teacher in the Pemberton School District.

In the 1990s, Mary Anne worked as an assistive technology specialist teaching disabled school-age children how to use computers, where she was recognized with an Exceptional Service Award from New Jersey three months before her death.

She volunteered at area nursing homes, taking a particular interest in patients with degenerative disorders who were forlorn and lonely.

“My mom would work all day and then come home and take care of my brother [Michael, 31] and me,” said daughter Theresa Travers, 27, who lives in Erial. “Some evenings she would then go visit and help some of the people she knew with ALS (amyotrophic lateral schlerosis).”

A Legacy of Giving Continues
So, in 2009, Tom started the Mary Anne Mazanec Ovarian Cancer Foundation (MAMOCF). The main mission of the foundation is providing financial reimbursements to women who are being treated for ovarian cancer in New Jersey, although women living in New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware have been recipients. Needs range from basic housekeeping costs to help with doctor bills.

After connections are made between MAMOCF and medical centers like Cooper Hospital and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and needs are assessed, women receive fiscal help.

"When some women are undergoing cancer treatments, they lose their jobs or have to stop working in order to get care," said Travers, who is the outreach coordinator of MAMOCF. 

With less money coming in, coupled with the arduous treatment schedules, some women can’t make ends meet—not to mention those that don’t have or lose health coverage.

“My mom used to say, ‘Cancer is a full-time job,’” Travers said.“We paid car payments for one woman who was on the verge of losing her car. We helped another woman with her college tuition.”

Other contributions have been buying wigs or refunding women for the insurmountable copays.

“Their foundation is really unique to New Jersey,” said Jean Shipos, 61, who knows firsthand the limits of the fight.

Shipos has beaten back ovarian cancer twice—once in 1998, and again in 2003. “When you are dealing with a chronic illness, it is exhausting.”

Shipos runs the Teal Tea Foundation out of Mercer County, another ovarian cancer group. Under the auspices of the Ovarian Cancer Subcommittee of the Governor’s Task Force on Cancer Prevention in New Jersey, Shipos sponsors the “One Force to Make a Difference” symposium, a collaborative of 15 other ovarian cancer organizations.

Shipos has worked with the Mazanec family and helped them direct some of their outreach efforts.

“What the Mazanecs are doing,” said Shipos, “is unique for women suffering in New Jersey.”  

MAMOCF also contributes to the cancer research efforts of Dr. George Coukos at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

On Saturday, June 4, the MAMOCF Second Annual Family Barbeque will be held at the  in Moorestown from noon to 4 p.m. A will begin at 8:30 a.m. (50 miles) and 9:30 (25 miles) at the same church.

“My wife taught me the meaning of giving,” Tom said. “I have big shoes to fill, but I’m trying; one toe at a time.”

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