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Cindy Shapiro who is a close friend of Pete’s and started this GoFundMe page for him. Below is a portion of what she wrote, please consider donating.
“Pete Zeldman – ‘possibly the most technically advanced drummer in the world…’ “
Geoff Nichols, Rhythm Magazine, Issue 105
Cindy writes:
One of our drumming brothers needs our help. The great Pete Zeldman urgently needs life-saving treatment for pancreatic cancer. Together, we can help to keep him with us.
He has played with some of the greatest musicians of our times like Steve Vai, Sonny Stitt, Clark Terry, Jimmy Ponder, Lee Konitz, Slide Hampton, and Lou Soloff. He counts Vinnie Colaiuta, Terry Bozzio, Tony Newton and Kenwood Dennard among his friends and peers who understand and venerate the extraordinary, high-concept rhythmic work he does.
Pete was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer in March of 2021.
It started with a pain behind his ribs. The NHS (the UK’s National Health Service) doctor whom he saw for it first “fast-tracked” him for pancreatic cancer treatment, but then for some reason decided to remove Pete off the fast-track, thinking he didn’t have this cancer. Unfortunately, that doctor incorrect and Pete lost precious time. Soon, it became clear that Pete did have pancreatic cancer. Fortunately, Pete then found an extremely well-regarded oncologist with the NHS to take over his case.
At first it looked like he was inoperable. He was put on a 3-month course of chemo to try to shrink the tumor in hopes of becoming operable. After 3-months, the tumor hadn’t shrunk, but his cancer markers had improved so much that the oncologist decided to go another three months to see if they could shrink the tumor enough to make him operable and thus remove this cancerous tumor.
His highly complex surgery was set for last December 21, 2021. The surgery, by the surgeon’s direct account, was reported to be a great success. They had gotten through to the margins of the cancer and eliminated everything they could see. As Pete convalesced from the brutality of the surgery (and learned what he would have to do for the rest of his life without a spleen), his doctors marveled at his miraculous recovery. He was told:
Go home, open a bottle of wine and celebrate – you’ve beaten this thing!
The plan going forward was to do routine scans every 4 months for the rest of his life, with the expectation that he would be clear and cancer-free and live out the rest of his days emanating his genius for the rest of us to receive and try to grasp (which we all struggle to do).
Sadly, at the very first 4-month scan in April of 2022, his oncologist was shocked and personally dismayed to see that the cancer was back and that it had metastasized to his liver and lungs. There was only one treatment available from the NHS — a new and more vicious course of chemo that is keeping him alive but is not something that will take him on a trajectory towards surgery or any other life-saving intervention. Pete has remained with us for the last 6 months via this barbaric chemotherapy protocol, which poisoned him and has landed him in the hospital with sepsis more than once.
PETE NOW HAS A CHANCE TO TRULY CURE HIS CANCER!
If everything falls into place the way we think it will, Pete will be 100% cancer free and will live his life on the path he was on before he became ill. All his suffering will not have been for naught. He will continue to be with us.
Visit his GoFundMe: HERE
