1977 Wildcat Jodie Macinski Shantz

I was diagnosed on 1/22/17. I have Acute Myeloid Leukemia with a FLT3 mutation, which makes the leukemia more aggressive. I was in remission from 6/17 to 10/17 when it came back. I’ve had two more rounds of chemo since then. I’m now in the hospital for 9 days of very strong chemo to completely wipe out my immune system. I am scheduled to have a stem cell transplant on 5/4. My donor is a 10 point match, which is very good. He is from Germany. He will donate over there and they will over night it to here. I am not allowed to know his name until one year after the transplant, and then only if he wants to have contact. We have had to find an apartment in Richmond because we have to be 30 minutes or less away from the hospital for at least 6 months. Our house is an hour and 15 minutes away if the traffic on I95 is not too bad. We tried to get our insurance carrier to cover the cost of the apartment, but they rejected us. They said you have to be over 100 miles away, and we’re about 80 miles away.

Jodie’s fellow Wildcat Classmates are banding together to help Jodie and her family weather this storm.  Please consider helping this very deserving Wildcat with  the financial support she needs right now.  As I remember Jodie - she was the one girl in our class who was EVERYONE’s friend!  If you can’t help out financially right now,  please send your prayers for her FULL RECOVERY!!!!   Thank you all so much!!