A 15-month-old New Brunswick girl who needs a bone marrow transplant has renewed hope as one community ramps up the search for a donor match.

Marlie Curwin was diagnosed with leukemia four months ago. Since then, she and her mother, Erin Curwin, have been at the IWK, going through several rounds of chemotherapy.

“Marlie is everything to us,” said her grandfather, Gary Curwin. “Before we found out that she was sick, she was happy-go-lucky, always had a smile. Even after she had three rounds of chemo, she was still smiling.”

Recently, Marlie began her fourth round of leukemia.

“We needed a match for Marlie two months ago,” said Marlie’s cousin, Allison Butcher. “If we had a match for Marlie two months ago, maybe we would be feeling a little more positive about our lives right now.”

But while Marlie is fighting for her life, she’s also stolen the hearts of many Maritimers – including those in uniform.

Some of the best candidates for Marlie’s bone marrow transplant are healthy men between the ages of 17 and 35. As a couple of family friends realized, there are hundreds of people at Base Gagetown who fit that profile.

Diane and Adam Botelho organized a one-match event at the base in hopes of increasing Marlie’s chances to find a donor.

“I said the base would be perfect because people are posted from all over the country,” said Erin’s friend, Diane Botelho. “We’d get a lot of ethnic backgrounds, and a lot of men, so Adam took off with it.”

“I asked the base if they would let us hold it here, and they gave us the approval,” said Erin’s husband, Adam Bothelo, who’s also a Master Corporol at the base. “The support we got from the base was incredible.”

The base approved the one-match drive for Marlie almost immediately. Now, the family is hoping that other bases across Canada will get onboard and do their own one-match drive.

“This is going to help Marlie,” said Butcher. “We’re going to find a match for her, but maybe we’re going to be making matches for other people, too.”

Until then, Marlie’s family remains by her side in Halifax, with even more out in the community, desperately searching for a match.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Laura Brown.