Cancer Support Community to Honor Broadway’s Ashley Park with Inaugural Marin Mazzie Award for Empowerment

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, March 13, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As first reported by Broadway.com, the Cancer Support Community (CSC) will recognize Broadway star and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) survivor Ashley Park with the first-ever Marin Mazzie Award for Empowerment at its Spring Celebration slated for Tuesday, April 16 in New York City.

In 2016, Mazzie and her husband, Broadway star Jason Danieley, received CSC’s Founders Award for Empowerment. After Mazzie passed away last year from ovarian cancer, CSC renamed the award after the three-time Tony nominee to recognize notable public figures who use their platform to both advocate for and inspire people who are living with cancer and their loved ones. Danieley will present the award to Park, a Tony nominee for her performance in "Mean Girls," at the ceremony.

Since Park’s diagnosis of AML at the age of 15 and her remission after eight months of hospitalization, she has been an advocate for the cancer community, especially in her support for those living with cancer in the Broadway community.

“Ashley Park’s courage in sharing her cancer experience with the world has inspired hope for patients and families on a global scale,” said Kim Thiboldeaux, CEO of the Cancer Support Community, a global nonprofit that provides $50 million in free services to patients and their loved ones each year. “We are honored to recognize Ashley, who has such a strong relationship with Jason and had such fondness and admiration for Marin. For those of us who were fortunate to know Marin and experience her powerhouse talent and immeasurable strength, seeing Jason present this honor to Ashley will be both emotional and inspiring.”

Park and Mazzie’s paths crossed when they performed together in the revival of “The King and I.”

“Ashley Park’s story, compassion, and wild good sense of humor immediately endeared her to Marin - cut from a similar cloth. That and Ashley’s quiet thoughtfulness, during their shared time together, immediately brought her to mind when CSC asked me who should be the inaugural recipient of the Marin Mazzie Empowerment Award,” Danieley said. “I am certain she will continue down the path of light and love as Marin would have herself.”

“It is honor enough that I had the privilege of experiencing Marin's deep generosity, her vibrant humor, her passionate spirit and incomprehensible strength each performance during her triumphant return to the Broadway stage, her home, in THE KING AND I,” Park said. “As a long-time fan of Marin, I was profoundly in awe to be in her fierce embrace and glow each show. As a cancer survivor, I was immensely humbled and moved that I could be there for Marin as a support during that transitional chapter of her journey. Marin Mazzie has always been breathtaking.  So when her dear Jason first asked if I’d accept the inaugural Marin Mazzie Award for Empowerment from the Cancer Support Community, I lost all ability to breathe and had no words. There aren't enough words to express how much this means to me. All I can say is that I will continue to be a champion of life, love and joyful spirit, like my friend Marin.”

For more information about the Cancer Support Community, please visit www.CancerSupportCommunity.org.