Christmas stories are supposed to be happy, not leave you wondering why people don't get the gift they desperately need. Mandi Schwartz was hoping to go home free of cancer. Instead, after a stem-cell transplant and months of treatment in Seattle, the disease has returned. The Yale hockey player will still head back to her Saskatchewan home next week, but she will go with fresh doubts and fears. It's futile to ask why anyone, especially a 22-year-old like Mandi, has to get leukemia. But it might help to know that because of her plight, somebody will be getting a priceless gift.
The person delivering it is Lexy Adams. She's a field hockey player at Yale who has never even met Mandi. But when she got to campus last year, she couldn't avoid her. It seemed everybody wanted to help Mandi, who was originally diagnosed two years ago. There were fundraisers and donor-registration drives. Not just at Yale, but throughout Canada. Mandi needed a stranger's stem cells to survive, but so do a lot of leukemia patients. And like most of us, Lexy would be willing to help. Then we get caught up in life and never get around to finding out if we might be a donor.
"I'd never even thought about it," Lexy said.
Then the Yale football team and women's hockey team organized a registration drive this spring. Lexy went and the technician swabbed the inside of her cheek. The 18-year-old's genetic makeup was registered in the National Marrow Donor Program.
Lexy figured that would be that. Transplants are such a genetic crapshoot, the vast majority of registrants never hear from donor programs again.
A few months passed, and Lexy got a call. She was a potential match.
Not for Mandi, but for somebody in the same situation.
. Enjoy! 
