AROUND TOWN: Boulder City resident needs bone marrow transplant

Friends of Ann Zapolski, a Boulder City mother and part-time waitress, are appealing to the public to contribute to a fund that will finance a bone marrow transplant needed to save her life.

Zapolski has been a cancer patient for 13 years, first battling breast cancer and then ovarian cancer. The chemotherapy and radiation treatments she received had the effect of destroying white blood cells, making a bone marrow transplant necessary, Zapolski said.

If successful, the new bone marrow could help put her cancer in remission and possibly put her on the path to making a full recovery, doctors said.

What Zapolski needs now is $32,000 to pay her portion of a procedure that costs upwards of $300,000. Insurance will pay the remainder of the balance, but the transplant can’t be scheduled until the patient raises her share of the bill. A matching donor has already been identified.

Zapolski’s friend and co-worker at Tony’s Pizza on Nevada Highway, Kristin Shelton, said her goal is raising $50,000 for the Ann Zapolski Fund to pay the cost of the procedure itself along with post-transplant care, medication and other expenses. To date, she has collected about $1,000 as the fundraising effort gets off the ground.

Zapolski is the single mother of a 13-year-old daughter. She waits table at Tony’s and tries to keep her spirits up despite her problems. Her constant fear is getting sick because her body can’t fight off infection without white blood cells.

Contributions to Zapolski’s fund are being collected by the church in Boulder City where her family worships. Money can be sent to the following address:

St. Andrew Catholic Church, Ann Zapolski fund, 1399 San Felipe Drive, Boulder City, NV 89005.
 

— John Maltby/View FIle Photo