The Yale woman’s hockey team has been engaged in a long battle to support their team mate, Mandi Schwartz, as she struggles with leukemia. They’ve decided to adopt a young cancer survivor as an honorary team member to hold Mandi’s place on the team while she is in Seattle receiving a stem cell transplant.
Their new team member is Giana Cardonita, a nine year old whose brain tumor left her blind in one eye and suffering from a variety of long term health issues after having her pituitary gland removed. She was treated at the Yale-New Haven Children’s hospital, which is where she met David Gimbel, who is academic advisor some of the hockey team members.
When the team first went to meet Giana they were nervous that she would be too shy to talk to them, but Giana surprised them. She’d done her homework before they arrived, studying the roster on the Yale website. She was very relieved to find that none of the girls were missing teeth.
“They all had nice smiles and were very pretty,” Giana said. “I already had my pituitary stem knocked out. I didn’t want to get my teeth knocked out.”
Giana bought all of her new team members hockey Silly Bandz in the form of skates and pucks and trophies. The girls had a great time with their new friend.
“We thought our team would be the one to cheer Giana up,” team member Alyssa Zupon told NHL Fanhouse, “but it was the other way around.”
