Be Well: Olympic Gold Medalist Mia Hamm Talks Bone Marrow Transplants

<div class="block">FIFA women&#39;s world cup champion and two time Olympic gold medalist Mia Hamm joined beWell to talk about her family&#39;s experience with a rare bone marrow disease. Hamm&#39;s brother, Garrett, died from complication of the illness at just 28-years-old.</div>

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Mia Hamm is a two time Olympic gold medalist and FIFA women's world cup champion. She's one of the best women's soccer players in history and one of the most recognizable too. But off the field, she was dealing with a family health issue that hit close to home and changed her life forever. Mia Hamm joins us now and I'm so excited that you're here with us. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Now, I definitely wanna talk about that family health issue. But first, I gotta start off by talking about your legendary career. You're an icon in soccer. Now, how does that feel? And was that a at always a goal? No, it was to be honest with you, the national team, I didn't even know about it growing up. And um I just loved playing and then the opportunity came about that I could play in college and that was really my motivation and my goal and I made the, the national team at a very young age and everything started kind of after college, um being able to play in the first women's World Cup in 91 and then play in the Olympics in 96. I was just, just icing on the cake. Definitely. So, and I know your father was in the military, you moved around a lot. So, do you think that soccer kind of played as an equalizer for you to kind of balance the playing field? It, it did, it was the icebreaker when I would move to a new town, new Air Force Base that immediately I had something in common with my classmates. You know, I was a shy kid. I was the fourth out of six. so sports and specifically soccer enabled me to kind of make friends a lot easier than I probably would. And now you're inspiring so many along your career to do the same thing, not only women but boys as well to just get in there and play and now they can play on a level, playing field as well. And you have two twin daughters, they're playing soccer. Do you hope they follow a mom's footsteps or you like to? Yeah, I mean, they've all played, all three kids have played, we have an 11 year old son and, you know, we, we love to see him compete, but in the end, you know, they have to follow their own passions. One really loves art, the other one loves lacrosse. Um, and our son wants to be a youtuber which, uh makes me laugh every time I say it. But, uh, you know, they're great. Kids. And in the end, that's what we're trying to raise is just really respectful and, and kind people, you know, you were inducted into the US Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame. What was that moment like? You know, that was very special. I think I grew up on the Olympics, big fan of the Olympics. And um to be able to do that last summer was very uh special for me and I was able to bring my twin daughters with me to be a part of it and just kind of feel that kind of Olympic spirit and meet uh former Olympians that were also inducted in my class, Michael Phelps Lindsay Vonn. Um it was uh a pretty impressive class to go in with. No, I can only imagine, you know, but even despite all the success, all the fame you were still dealing with your own personal family, health issues behind the scenes, talk to us about your brother Garrett, what he went through. Yeah. So my brother Garrett uh was my idol growing up. And I think to see him uh go through his illness and then eventually pass away when he was 28 after complications from a bone marrow transplant were really hard for not just myself but the entire family to see my parents struggle uh trying to find uh a match for him because he was adopted and, you know, also find the financial strain it took on our family and you know, that's why I'm so proud of the work my foundation has done, but incredibly proud of this campaign, partnering with the insight to really we raise awareness about grat versus host disease. You know, it's it's a potential complication after a bone marrow transplant. And the more information we can give to patients who are on this bone marrow transplant journey to be proactive, try to recognize symptoms um will really help them in their fight. So what's one piece of information you would like to leave viewers with to help them understand bone marrow transplants a little bit more. Yeah, I think sending them to the website GB HD now dot com slash fans. There's so much information um to know that we are here for them, we're supporting them and cheering them on. Well, we can continue to be impressed by all that you continue to do on and off the field and we wish you much success and luck with the bone marrow transplant community as well.