Gwen Cinquemani knows she beat the odds.
Now the 17-year-old New Rochelle High School junior wants others who might be dealing with a life-threatening illness, as she did, to know they can have a second chance. She is speaking up so folks understand how they can help.
In August 2018, Cinquemani was diagnosed with a rare pre-cancerous blood disorder known as MDS. It is a syndrome that can lead to leukemia. She went from being a healthy, active 13-year-old cheerleader to someone whose life was on the line.
"I was always doing something. The diagnosis took my freedom away,” Cinquemani said.
She needed a bone marrow transplant. She’s a triplet, but both her brothers were tested and they weren’t a match.
Cinquemani certainly was not alone. There’s only a 25% chance that patients who need a transplant will have a sibling who is a fully matched donor. That meant they had to turn to a potential-donor registry.
“A bone marrow transplant is a long and serious process; there’s always going to be a few bumps in the road and possibilities for it not working. But thankfully, everything for the most part went well with mine,” said Cinquemani.
She was fortunate that three months after being diagnosed, she had the transplant. The donor: Haven Davis, a high school teacher from Minneapolis who had just joined the “Be the Match” donor registry and turned out to be the right match for a teenage girl in New Rochelle, some 1,200 miles away.
Cinquemani was finally able to meet and thank Davis at a recent “Be the Match” gala.
“My family and I are not surprised that she’s a teacher; she’s such an amazing person. She has such a great personality and attitude that she’s probably an amazing teacher,” said Cinquemani.
“I’m basically back to being a healthy, normal teenager and after being isolated for so long, getting back into school and my social life are now starting to go back to normal,” said Cinquemani, who would like in the future to work in the medical field, maybe as a nurse or a nurse practitioner.
Tiffany Cinquemani said she and her daughter are thankful and hope that more people join the registry so matches can be found. “Mixed ethnic backgrounds have the hardest time finding a match, and because New Rochelle is so rich in diversity I think there could be a lot of great people out there who can get swabbed and save someone’s life.” To find out more, visit bethematch.org.
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