How's Mandi Doing?
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The following article featuring Yale forward Mandi Schwartz appeared November 20 on the Yale Web site.
By Sam Rubin
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - It has been almost a year since Yale senior
forward Mandi Schwartz was diagnosed with leukemia, and seven
months since her women's hockey teammates joined with the Yale
football team for a record-setting marrow donor testing drive - a
drive that helped save another leukemia patient's life. As both of
those teams get set to battle archrival Harvard this weekend in New
Haven, Schwartz remains home in Saskatchewan, where she returned
for treatment. But she is still very much on the minds of her many
friends at Yale, and she recently checked in with some good
news.
Schwartz was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia last December
and immediately returned home to Wilcox, Sask., to battle the
potentially fatal condition and start five rounds of chemotherapy.
Back in New Haven, her teammates did their best to express their
continued support. That culminated last April, when the football
and women's hockey teams combined to host a marrow donor testing
drive at Commons that attracted more than 700 potential donors.
The drive was part of the nationwide "Get in the Game. Save a
Life." campaign involving dozens of college football teams. It had
started at Villanova, and Bulldog assistant coach Larry Ciotti
brought it to Yale with the support of Tom Williams, who had just
taken over as Yale's Joel E. Smilow '54 Head Coach of Football.
None of the other schools that participated had ever witnessed the
type of turnout Yale had. Potential donors crammed into Commons,
and eventually spilled out on to Beinecke Plaza, as they awaited
the chance to have their cheeks swabbed and their names added to
the National Marrow Donor Program's list of potential donors.
Complete article can be accessed via the Yale Web site by clicking here.
