Mandi Schwartz needs a hero -- and soon.

Schwartz, a 22-year-old forward and teammate of Greenwich resident Bray Ketchum on the Yale University women's ice hockey team, is battling acute myeloid leukemia -- a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells -- for the second time.

The Saskatchewan, Canada, native's cancer is in remission after undergoing intense chemotherapy, but she needs a stem cell transplant within the next 30-45 days to save her life.

Dr. Tedd Collins, a clinical immunologist from New Haven, and the Yale community is spearheading the search for bone marrow and cord blood donors.

The search is especially difficult because Schwartz is of mixed ancestry (she's German/Ukranian/Russian) and a perfect 10-out-of-10 DNA match has yet to be found. In bone marrow donation, someone with the same heritage is considered the best possible match.

There is a 9-out-of-10 bone marrow match for Schwartz in Germany, but there is a risk involved in using a non-perfect match. Dr. Collins' daughter, Natasha, died after receiving a transplant from a 9-out-of-10 bone marrow match. Schwartz's type of cancer often reoccurs, and for patients like her with relapsed AML, the only proven potentially curative therapy is a stem cell transplant or a cord blood transplant.