Bone Marrow Donor

On Thursday, I got this forward from a former athlete, Kolby Rice.

Hello Everyone :

Please watch the video clip below and then …..I know you will want to help .  Mandi is a special young lady

Her parents, Rick and Carol Schwartz are our family friends from my husband Gordie’s home town of Kamsack. Some of you will know them – some of you won’t .  Our children were childhood friends and played together. Then both our families both left Kamsack and the Schwartz family now lives in Wilcox. Their 22 year old daughter, Mandy has leukemia and desperately needs a bone marrow transplant.  She has only 35 days left to find a perfect match. We pray she stays healthy until that transplant happens.  She is at home in Wilcox right now – after a difficult bout of chemo.

We are praying that all of you will proceed to be tested to be a match.   It only takes 10 minutes to get it done and it could save her life!!!!  You simply need to answer a few questions and then to do a swab from your cheek. Please note that there is very high hope that the match will be from Saskatchewan but because heritage plays a significant role – the match can be found anywhere.  She is of Ukrainian-Russian -German descent. The only requirements are that you are between 17 and 50 years of age.

Here is how you can get your swab done. There are a few ways:

1)  You can come to the bone marrow drive in Saskatoon on this Saturday and Sunday June 19 & 20 –– our daughter Noelle is helping organize this and our family will be there. The drive is located downtown at on 23^rd St. between 3^rd and 4^th Ave.and will be open from 8 – 6 pm. A large tent will be set up beside the 4 on 4 street hockey tournament that will be going on. (the street is blocked off)

2)  There is also a drive in Regina on the weekend of June 26 and 27^th .  It will be held at 13^th Avenue between Robinson and Angust Streets. from 8-6 pm both days . And a drive in Calgary June 19th and 20th.

3)  If you cannot attend in person then we pray you will proceed with ordering  a swab kit from their web site at www.onematch.ca .  It is very simple and straightforward.

Please watch the video and then …..come out to help Mandi –

May God Bless you all

Please  – pass this along to everyone you can and help save her life

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5288507

Thanks,

Barb Broda

It made me think.  What if Mandi was my sister...or my child?  I felt compelled to act.  I feel this way about many causes and always have good intentions to do something, but never follow through.  I talked to Hugh (who helps me to follow through) and we made plans this morning to go downtown and get swabbed.  

Kolby was there.  I was so proud of her for sending the email, getting swabbed, and even more impressively, she had volunteered on her Saturday to help out with something she felt passionate about.

It took 10 minutes and one day, maybe, we will get to save a life.