Mandi Schwartz Marrow Donor Registration Drive at Yale Offers Chance to Save a Life

Mandi Schwartz Marrow Donor Registration Drive at Yale
Part of the “Get in the Game. Save a Life.” Program for Be The Match®

Ways to Join the Be The Match Registry®:

In Person (Yale community members and hosted visitors):
Thursday, Apr. 21, 2022
10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Beinecke Plaza, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
To join the Be The Match Registry®, must be ages 18 to 40
No advance registration required
1-800-MARROW-2 (for questions related to joining the registry, donating, etc.)
By Website:
http://join.bethematch.org/YaleSaves
By Text Message:
Text “YaleSaves” to 61474

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – In recognition of the impact her courageous battle with cancer has had on efforts to save lives through marrow donor registration drives, the Yale athletic department is once again holding a drive in memory of women’s ice hockey player Mandi Schwartz ’10 (Wilcox, Sask.) (1988-2011).

The Mandi Schwartz Marrow Donor Registration Drive at Yale, which is part of the nationwide “Get in the Game. Save a Life.” campaign for Be The Match®, offers multiple ways for people to register for the chance to become a life-saving marrow donor.

Yale community members and hosted visitors who prefer to join in person can come to Beinecke Plaza on Thursday, Apr. 21, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.  The drive is open to anyone aged 18-40. Donors who could help save lives are located through testing that consists of simple cheek swabs.
At any time, anyone who cannot attend the drive in person at Yale can go on-line to http://join.bethematch.org/YaleSaves or text “YaleSaves” to 61474 to start the process of joining the Be The Match Registry®.
Yale’s drives are part of the “Get in the Game. Save a Life.” program, which started in 1992 at Villanova under the guidance of head football coach Andy Talley. That program, involving college athletic teams organizing drives on their campuses, has resulted in more than 800 life-saving transplants. Larry Ciotti, long-time assistant football coach at Yale, is a friend of Talley’s and brought the idea to Yale.

Talley has partnered with Be The Match® to take his efforts to the national level. He has received commitments from 160 college football programs. The Yale athletic department has held drives each of the past 13 springs, ever since Mandi was first diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in December of 2008. Yale’s record-setting drives have added nearly 8,000 potential donors to the Be The Match Registry®, and more than 80 life-saving donor matches for patients in need have been located through the Bulldogs’ efforts.

Yale’s drives were led by the football team and women’s ice hockey team each of the first two years. In 2011, the field hockey team began assisting. In 2018 the men’s soccer team joined these efforts. This year, the Yale volleyball team has joined as well. Members of these teams help spread the word about the need for donors to their classmates, friends and relatives.

Mandi’s story has been one of the driving forces behind the success of the Yale drives. In September 2010 she required a blood stem cell transplant that was designed to give her a new immune system using two anonymously donated units of umbilical cord blood. A biopsy in December 2010 indicated that she had relapsed, and she passed away at home in Saskatchewan on Apr. 3, 2011.

Mandi’s plight shed further light on the needs of cancer patients everywhere, and the value of marrow donation. Every year, thousands of people of all ages are diagnosed with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases. Many of them will pass away unless they get a marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant from a matching donor. Seventy percent of these patients do not have a fully matched donor in their family and depend on the Be The Match Registry® to find a genetic match to save their life.

To join the Be The Match Registry®, an individual must be between the ages of 18 and 40, meet certain health guidelines and be willing to donate to any patient in need. The donor test consists of simple cheek swabs and will only take approximately 15 minutes.

Those who registered at previous drives are already in the Be The Match Registry®, so there is no need for them to be registered again. Yale is seeking to add as many NEW potential donors as possible.

Those interested in helping with the Mandi Schwartz Marrow Donor Registration Drive at Yale can contact Larry Ciotti with the Yale football team at larry.ciotti@yale.edu.

More information on Mandi

Be The Match Registry®:

Be The Match Registry® Website
Myths and facts about marrow donation
Medical Guidelines for Potential Donors