Saskatchewan’s hockey community is in mourning after losing a talented and courageous young female hockey player.
Mandi Schwartz, 23, died Sunday morning in hospital Рa life cut short after a two year battle with leukemia. Her parents and fianc̩ were by her side.
On Monday, flags were at half staff at Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Sask. where Schwartz attended high school.
“We’re sad, we’re grieving,” Notre Dame College President Robert Palmarin said. “It’s a rollercoaster, but there are also those Mandi moments of joy that everyone remembers.”
There are many of those memories. Everyone remembers Schwartz as a competitor who never gave up.
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“She was very courageous and very inspiring in the sense that you looked at her and there was always hope,” Palmarin said.
It did not matter how bad her illness was; she always gave everything she had.
“That’s the type of person she was,” Schwartz’ former hockey coach Janice Rumpel said. “It was, “˜You’re not going to waste a day’. You put forth your best effort and that was her life.”
Kelsie Graham was a former teammate of Schwartz and explains her battle on and off the ice was an inspiration to many young girls in hockey.
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“Great ambassador for female hockey,” Graham said, “A lot of girls look up to her. She had a tryout with team Canada, she was on team Saskatchewan, and she’s a captain.”
While the world has lost Schwartz, she leaves behind a strong legacy that may save many lives in the future.
Last summer bone marrow drives were held across North America to find Schwartz a match, in turn adding thousands of names to the donor list.
“It just highlights the difficulty of finding a donor for certain people,” Dr. Ahmed Galal from the Bone Marrow Transplant Program in Saskatoon said. “By increasing the donors, that will actually lead to more transplants and saving lives.”
Saving lives so Schwartz’ legacy can live on forever.
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