Dear Family and Friends,



As you may have heard, Mendy received a call a few weeks ago from the Gift of Life to let him know they had identified him as a match for a 52 year old male suffering from severe aplastic anemia.

Mendy and I feel so fortunate to be able to assist this organization and ultimately the patient for whom Mendy was identified as a match. In the weeks since Mendy received that call, I've spent hours researching the donation process, the disease from which the patient is suffering, the organization, and anything else that seemed relevant. Something that I learned from the Gift of Life's blog is that there are over 8,000 donor kits sitting around waiting to be processed due to a lack of funding. I also read about two women from New Jersey, Janet Kaplan and Michelle Rich, who after learning this statistic had the same feeling: "The thought that a person who is desperately in need of a lifesaving transplant might lose their fight because their donor's life-giving DNA was unable to be processed was overwhelming to both of us." For this reason Janet and Michelle started the 54-4-54 campaign - they set a goal to find 54 people, to sponsor 54 donors from the waitlist, at $54 per test kit.

As I'm sure is the case with many of the organization's registrants (myself included), when Mendy swabbed his cheek a few years ago at a Yeshiva University event I don't think he ever dreamed he'd actually get a call from the Gift of Life. Now that we're here, a few weeks away from the donation date, I am so proud of the conviction with which Mendy is approaching this opportunity, and I feel compelled to help out in some way, too.

Inspired by my husband and the efforts of Janet and Michelle, I'd love to be able to be to raise the $2,916 needed to process 54 donor kits in the z'chut that the patient remains stable enough to accept the upcoming transplant and has an easy and speedy refuah sheleimah afterwards, and that Mendy's procedure runs smoothly and that he too should have an easy recovery.

We don't know anything about the patient other than his age, gender and disease. What we do know is that this man is someone's son, potentially someone's husband, father and friend. It is said that saving one life is like saving the entire world. Beyond what Mendy is doing by donating his bone marrow, the difference we can make together by sponsoring these 54 donor kits is, for lack of a better way to express myself, really exciting.

If you made it through everything I've written above, thank you and sorry for the lengthy request! This campaign means so much to us, and we hope you'll be able to help in any way you can. 

Remember, everyone who registers themselves or contributes $54 could save another life!

If you have any questions about how to register, donate, or anything else, please feel free to reach out to either one of us.

Mendy & Sarina