February 8, 2012

Thornhill woman finds donor match

Resident set to receive bone marrow transplant this month

by Michelle Ervin

A Thornhill resident on a mission to find bone marrow donor matches for others got some good news of her own recently when she learned that her own match had been found.

Thirty-four-year-old single mom Shari Silverman was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, last July. Although Silverman is now in remission, she learned that she would need a bone marrow transplant in order to survive. Finding this type of donor match can be extremely difficult.

Silverman and her father, Mike Ichelson, began Shari’s Mission with the hopes of not only finding a match for Silverman but for others, too. “The main objective of it was to get everybody off the list, so if anybody needed a bone marrow transplant they wouldn’t have to worry, they would automatically have a match,” she said. Shari’s Mission runs bone marrow drives that help to expand the donor registry list and identify matches. The next event will take place at Vaughan Mills mall Feb. 26, 27 and 28.

“My dad has been a superstar,” said Silverman. “He started it, he got volunteers, and we’re still going strong with it. It will not stop.”

This article appears in the March 2010 issue of Post City Magazines

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