Among the many activities at Lawrence Woodmere Academy‘s Homecoming on Saturday will be a registration drive for potential bone marrow donors.
This was prompted by what LWA pre-school teacher Judi Schiffer, a lifelong Five Towns resident, went through last year after she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in July. Schiffer underwent chemotherapy at New York Presbyterian/Cornell Weill Medical Center in Manhattan the following month.
Having a bone marrow transplant was her best chance to regain her health, doctors said. Her children and siblings were only a 50 percent match. After she was in remission, the hospital joined forces with the Be The Match organization to find a donor. Within a few weeks an almost perfect match was found in Europe, and that person agreed to donate their bone marrow.