> To View Photos of the San Diego Matchmaker 5K Click Here < This April the Icla da Silva Foundation hosted its second annual San Diego Matchmaker 5K Run/Walk. Over 130 participants enjoyed the perfect weather and picturesque palm tree-lined route with beautiful views at Tidelands Park overlooking the Coronado Bridge and downtown San Diego. […]

Last Thursday, May 5th, Laura Rodriguez from Fort Lauderdale, Florida met for the very first time the person who saved her life, her bone marrow donor Grace Marie Rivera from Puerto Rico.  The emotional meeting took place live on the Spanish television station Telemundo in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 2012 Laura was feeling very tired[…]

On April 9, in the seaside town of Long Beach, NY, the community rallied around one of their own, Kaitlyn Peters, an eight-year-old native, who was diagnosed with Philadelphia Positive ALL – a rare form of Leukemia.  Although the weather was dreary, the community came together to support the Peters Family in a bone marrow[…]

“I love her and I don’t even know her.” It’s been six months since Kristel Rodriguez donated her bone marrow to a patient suffering from Acute Myelogenous Leukemia, but she still thinks about her every single day.  Kristel and her marrow mate have likely never met. She owes this patient nothing, but she has given[…]

by Alessandra Selgi-Harrigan Coronado Eagle & Journal Coronado Newspaper – Published weekly since 1912 Icla Da Silva was a 13-year-old Brazilian girl who lost her fight with leukemia. Her older brother Airam wanted to do something to try to make Icla’s fate not be someone else’s by creating the ICLA DA SILVA Foundation, an organization[…]

In March, the Icla da Silva Foundation held two Be the Match 5K Walk/Run: Miami, FL (3/14) and San Diego, CA (3/21). This was the first Matchmaker 5K in these two cities. The event in Miami was held on the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk with the ocean as a beautiful backdrop. Over 100 people attended this first annual event. Three marrow[…]

Aksel is a strong, sweet, dynamic and charming 3 year-old child who loves to dance and jump. His favorite hobby is to play in the rain.   Aksel’s life changed last year during Thanksgiving. He started feeling sick and by December he was diagnosed with HLH with only a 5% chance of survival. Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis[…]

It’s not often that someone can say they saved somebody’s life, but that is exactly what an anonymous marrow donor did for Baby Ava! At the age of 3 months, Baby Ava was diagnosed with HLH, a rare and life-threatening disease.  After an unsuccessful cord blood transplant, the recommendation for treatment was for a bone[…]

On March 15, 2015, Andrew MacDowell embarked on a 13-mile journey as part of the 2015 United Airlines NYC Half Marathon in support of The Icla da Silva Foundation.   “I beat my time from five years ago.  I think this was the result of the deepened purpose I felt in my heart during this run,[…]

by Matt Sepic, The Pulse (Photo courtesy by Rachel McPherson)   A Philadelphia woman is likely to enjoy many more Thanksgivings following a successful bone marrow transplant. Francesca Lynch has been cancer free for a year because a woman she got to meet only recently signed up with the National Marrow Donor Program’s Be the Match registry.[…]