My name is Mandi Schwartz, I'm 22 years old and a junior at Yale University where I play forward for the women's hockey team. I also have leukemia, a blood cancer that is destroying my bone marrow and making my stem cells useless. The only way for me to survive is to totally replace my unhealthy cells with bone marrow or cord blood stem cells from a healthy donor. This is called a stem cell transplant.

A bone marrow donor has been identified that partially matches me. However, transplants using partially matched bone marrow stem cells often result in a life-threatening graft versus host (GVH) response if the donor cells recognize they're in someone else's body.

Cord blood have the same stem cells as bone marrow, however, partially matched cord blood less frequently result in the same life-ending complications. Cord blood is readily donated by pregnant women and can be collected from the umbilical cord after her baby is born without harm or discomfort to the mother or child.

Become My Hero finds cord blood donors for anyone in imminent danger of dying because he or she needs a bone marrow transplant to survive, but does not have a safe match in a donor registry. 

Won't you please join my recruiter network and take as little as 20 minutes out of your day to give and send out brochures to expectant mothers whom might be able to save my life.

Could you also send and Facebook this link to anyone that you think would also be willing to help. The more Heroes I have the better my chance of finding donors.

Mandi Schwartz - "Your Friend for Life"

Please click here to learn how to Become My Hero!