Mandi Schwartz legacy lives on with bone marrow drive

The legacy of Mandi Schwartz is living on in Saskatoon this weekend.

A bone marrow drive was held at Al Anderson Source for Sports on Saturday to help find a match for people needing stem cell transplants.

Schwartz, the older sister of 2019 Stanley Cup champion Jaden Schwartz, died from leukemia in 2011. Since then, friends and family like Breck Construction’s Bobbi Lynn Stewart have been raising awareness and furthering Schwartz’s memory by matching leukemia patients with donor matches.

“Seventy-five per cent of people that end up needing a stem cell transplant end up relying on the generosity of a stranger, so getting the numbers up is crucial,” Stewart said as both the Saskatoon Blades and the University of Saskatchewan men’s soccer team filed in to go through the five-minute donation process.

Stewart, who lost her mother to leukemia 15 years ago, has been working with the Schwartz family for the past eight years to hold the Run for Mandi, which raises awareness and funds for the Schwartz foundation.

“We never want to hear those words, ‘I’m sorry, but there isn’t a match for your loved one,’ ” she said. “So hopefully anybody that has a blood disease or disorder finds a match. That’s what it’s all about.”

The best-suited donors are man aged 17 to 35, as they typically have the most stem cells to give. The five-minute process is mostly filled with paperwork and questions before a cheek swab enters a person into the registry.

Finding donors isn’t just limited to age, either. Stewart says organizations are always searching for a more diverse crop of donors as nearly 70 per cent of the registry is Caucasian.

Since Mandi’s death, the St. Louis Blues and Schwartz’s alma mater, the Yale women’s hockey team, have held numerous bone marrow drives.

“They’ve actually had almost 40 matches just in Mandi’s name since inception,” Stewart said. “So that’s 40 lives that were potentially saved — that’s huge.”

Sunday’s five-kilometre run or one-km walk begins at noon at the Farmer’s Market.