Apr 12, 2025
When My Doctor Gave Up Hope | The Hidden Impact of Ethnicity on Survival | Israeli Trailblazers Show
When I was diagnosed with leukemia, my doctor told me to prepare my bucket list—because he didn’t think I’d find a donor match. The reason? My ethnic background. As an Ashkenazi Jew of Eastern European descent, my chances of finding a genetic match were heartbreakingly low due to the devastating impact the Holocaust had on our bloodlines. Tissue type is inherited, just like eye or hair color, so finding a match depends on shared ancestry. What I thought would be a medical journey quickly became a deeply personal and historical one.