22-year-old athlete Mandi Schwartz is fighting an arduous battle with leukemia, and is in need of a stem cell transplant to save her life.

Mandi currently plays for Yale’s Women’s Hockey Team, but has had to quit due to her condition. Now, News 8 in Connecticut has issued a call for cord blood donors to help Mandi find a cord blood or bone marrow transplant. 

A few months ago, Mandi was interviewed by the channel, and she spoke about the importance of donating bone marrow and cord blood. At the time, she was cancer-free, but she has since relapsed and is now fighting for her life once again.

Because Mandi is of Ukrainian, Russian and German descent, it has been difficult to find her a bone marrow match. Her doctors say women like Mandi are ideal candidates for cord blood transplants, as they do not need to be exact matches with their donors.

There is little time left for Mandi to find a donor, and the Yale Community has come together to help her fight the disease. Dr. Tedd Collins, a cancer researcher at Yale, has launched the ‘Become a Hero Campaign’. The organization plans to search for cord blood donors internationally to help patients who are in need of stem cells transplants but have yet to obtain a bone marrow match.

 

“Donating cord blood is simple,” the report says. “If you’re not a match for Mandi, you could be a match for someone else”.

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