In March 2014, Maria Dennis, a mother of two, received devastating news. She had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a rare form of leukemia in adults.
And she needed an immediate bone marrow transplant.
"I had leukemia in 90 percent of my bone marrow,” she said. "I couldn't believe it. I have two children.”
Sadly there was no bone marrow match in Maria’s family, so doctors began looking at non-relatives. She spent the next three months undergoing treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
But then a perfect match was found through the National Bone Marrow Registry. His name is Randy Braun.
"You have the one cancer you can actually cure, right? Why not? It's not that difficult,” Randy says. “It's actually easier than giving blood. It's a swab.”
Maria and Randy underwent the successful transplant in June 2014. Afterward, Maria desperately wanted to meet the man who saved her life, so the two began to email back and forth.
A date was set, but Randy and his family couldn’t wait until the time they had agreed upon and decided to sneak up behind Maria and her husband on the street.
In the video below, the two share an emotional hug. They can't believe they are finally meeting one another.
"I saw a video of her and the first thing I thought of was my wife. It could have been my wife. They have kids who are the same age… It's just quite a feeling, ya know,” Randy says. “I feel very fortunate that I was even allowed to do something like this. I would think most people would do what I would do.”
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