The Mandi Schwartz Marrow Donor Registration Drive at Yale


Swab Your Cheek and Save a Life!
Join the NMDP RegistrySM through
the Mandi Schwartz Marrow Donor Registration Drive at Yale
Part of the NMDP Get in the GameSM Program

In 16 years of annual drives we have added nearly 10,000 potential marrow or blood stem cell donors to the NMDP RegistrySM and helped save at least 102 lives! The 2025 drive will take place Tuesday Apr. 15 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Beinecke Plaza and Steep Café.

Here is how you can help save a life by swabbing your cheek:
  • Join the NMDP RegistrySM at Beinecke Plaza (10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) or Steep Café (10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) Tuesday Apr. 15, 2025
    OR
  • Join the NMDP RegistrySM by going to https://join.nmdp.org/YaleSaves
    OR
  • Join the NMDP RegistrySM by texting YaleSaves to 61474
Marrow or blood stem cell donors who could help save lives are found through testing that consists of simple cheek swabs, a process that takes less than 15 minutes. Swab kits are created in a sterile environment at NMDP's biorepository, then sealed and shipped to the registrants. Registrants swab their cheeks either at a drive or at home. Those who swab at home mail the kit back to NMDPSM using a prepaid envelope.
Mandi Schwartz
Yale holds its annual marrow donor registration drive in memory of Yale women's ice hockey player Mandi Schwartz. After she was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 2008 (her junior year), Mandi's search for a genetic match for a stem cell transplant to save her life inspired thousands to sign up as potential marrow or blood stem cell donors. No perfect match was ever found for her. Mandi received a transplant using umbilical cord blood in September 2010, but in December 2010 her cancer returned. She passed away at home in Saskatchewan on Apr. 3, 2011 at the age of 23.

To date, Yale's drives have added nearly 10,000 people to the NMDP Registry®, including 921 in 2010 -- a record for the NMDP Get in the GameSM program. 

At least 102 life-saving matches for patients in need have been located through these efforts.

These drives are led by the field hockey, football, gymnastics, men's ice hockey, women's ice hockey, men's soccer, men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving and volleyball teams.

NMDP RegistrySM :