Friends, colleagues and former students know Lauren Weldy as a talented musician, proficient audio production student and all-around kind person.
But Weldy’s life took a different turn when she was diagnosed with stage-four sarcoma cancer in September.
Weldy’s best friend, Daisy Carlson, is hosting a benefit concert at Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery, 24 W. Union St., to help Weldy and her family pay for the mounting medical bills that have accumulated since her diagnosis.
Donations will be taken at the door and 10 percent of the bars’ proceeds will go toward helping the family. The family will also receive money raised from a silent auction, which will feature baskets filled with gift cards to local Uptown establishments and concert tickets to the sold-out Tommy Emmanuel show at the Fur Peace Ranch.
Weldy, who graduated in 2011 from Ohio University with a degree in audio production, made many connections as a student, providing her the chance to record with several groups, including Maza Blaska, Jeff Ellis and Elemental Groove Theory.
“Her projects always sounded great and were well produced; everything she did was just very musical,” said Eddie Ashworth, sequence head of audio production at OU and Weldy’s mentor. “There are some students who have a really good technical grasp. … And then you have some students who are more instinctive and approach it from an artist’s side, and that’s where Lauren comes from.”
Maza Blaska and Jeff Ellis will be among the bands playing to support Weldy on Saturday. Any Colour, Hell Naw, Qiet, Controlled Folly, Burning River Ramblers and Sassafraz, among others, will also be present.
Because Weldy’s immune system is too weak for her to attend the event, Carlson said she hopes to record the show’s music and have a live feed for Weldy to watch via Ustream.
According to cancer.net, 11,280 people will be diagnosed with sarcoma cancer this year, making it one of the rarest cancers, earning it the nickname “the forgotten cancer.”
“There is a 50-percent chance they will have to amputate my leg, because I have a big tumor on my left thigh,” Weldy said. “So that’s still up in the air, but what scares me the most is … my whole world turned upside down in one second.”
She said what has helped her cope with it the most is Carlson’s support and that of the Athens community.
“I’m not scared or upset anymore; I just kind of take it day by day and enjoy each day,” Weldy said. “I want people to know that they aren’t alone. You just have to be really strong and really strong-minded. … I’m so eternally grateful to have such great people in my life that come by every day and ask me how I’m doing.”
wh092010@ohiou.edu
