55.0°,
Overcast Register to be a bone marrow donor
Head to Lawrence Woodmere Academy's Homecoming on Saturday
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.
Schiffer’s doctors permitted her to travel to Las Vegas for her daughter’s wedding. Immediately after her return, she was readmitted to the hospital and received a week of chemo treatments to prepare for the transplant. The operation was on Nov. 5. It was deemed a success. She recuperated for three weeks in the hospital’s isolation unit with her family by her side day and night.
Attend LWA’s Homecoming from noon to 4 p.m. on Oct. 15, at the school at 336 Woodmere Blvd. in Woodmere, and register to be a potential donor.
