Stem cell donation needed
Partner of Bundesliga professional suffers from leukemia
April 14, 2026 – 11:53 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
After their first win of the year, 1. FC Heidenheim announced sad news. The partner of loan player Eren Dinkçi is seriously ill.
While 1. FC Heidenheim is currently fighting against relegation to the 2nd Bundesliga, football suddenly takes a back seat a few days after the 3-1 win over Union Berlin. As the club announced on Tuesday, Cinja, Eren Dinkçi’s girlfriend, suffers from leukemia, a malignant cancer.
“A journey begins that you could never have imagined,” the couple was quoted as saying in the club’s statement after the diagnosis. According to the club, no suitable stem cell donor was found in Cinja’s family. She is therefore dependent on someone else’s donation.
Next weekend, Heidenheim will face SC Freiburg away (Sunday, from 3:30 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online). Dinkçi is on loan from the Breisgauers to the bottom of the table. Together with the German Bone Marrow Donor Registry (DKMS), the two clubs are now starting a registration campaign for potential stem cell donors for the game at the Europa Park Stadium. People should also be able to register for the FCH home game against FC St. Pauli a week later.
It’s about “raising awareness and giving as many people as possible a better chance of a life-saving stem cell donation,” as the couple explained in the club’s statement. The exchange with people in the clinic who are in the same situation as Cinja obviously plays a crucial role. “It’s precisely in moments like these that you realize how valuable every single registration is.” It can “make the crucial difference between hope and uncertainty.”
