Yale athlete needs bone marrow to live

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Doctors say a Yale women's hockey player has about a month to find a matching bone marrow or cord blood donor to save her life.

22-year-old Mandi Schwartz has acute myeloid leukemia. She found out in April that the cancer, which had been in remission since May 2009 had returned.

The senior forward has been undergoing chemotherapy in Saskatchewan and will be driven to Seattle on Wednesday to prepare for a transplant, which doctors are planning for July.

Yale has held bone marrow registration drives for Schwartz with good turnout, but no match yet.

Last week the school's athletic director sent out a community-wide e-mail asking for help finding a donor, and News 8 is trying to help spread that word.

Former Yale men's hockey player Brennan Turner also has spearheaded a series of donor testing drives across Canada.

Mandi's leukemia had been in remission, but its return is what put her in such dire need of help.

There are several ways that you can help and become a Mandi's hero:

1) Clinical Immunologist, Dr. Tedd Collins can be reached at 203-200-0771 with any questions.

2) The Yale athletics website has a list of things people can do to help, along with articles and other info about her.

3)  Dr. Tedd Collins has set up the BecomeMandisHero website with information about Mandi and how people can become donors, etc.

4) Also, people on Facebook should join the "Become Mandi's Heroes" group, and tweet to the MandisHeroes Twitter page that Dr. Collins initiated.