A woman from central China diagnosed with lymphoma received bone marrow from the same donor twice in six years. Two years after her successful transplant, she finally met the man who saved her twice in Beijing.

Hu Lei, a woman from Wuhan City, central China's Hubei Province, was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma in 2014. Through the China Marrow Donor Program (CMDP), a leading bone marrow bank in China, she matched with a donor within one week and successfully received the transplant.

Huang Wei, Hu's donor, was a water rescue worker in Shangqiu City, central China's Henan Province. He had registered as a potential donor in China's bone marrow bank with his co-workers one year before he was told that his bone marrow matched with a patient.

Initially, Huang's family members worried that the donation might cause damage to his body, so they tried to persuade him not to donate the bone marrow. After inquiring with a doctor, Huang was told that the donation wouldn't cause any harm to his health, which made him more determined to complete the donation process.

Hu's condition suddenly worsened two years after the first transplant surgery, and she urgently needed a second transplant.

Upon hearing this, Huang didn't hesitate to donate his bone marrow to help the same patient he saved two years prior.

However, the donation process didn't go smoothly this time. Huang didn't meet the physical requirements due to his high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol.

Nevertheless, to help Hu, he asked the bone marrow bank to give him an extra month to meet the requirements through exercise.

Huang began swimming and walking every day. After one month of intensive workouts, he lost 9.5 kilograms of weight, and finally met the physical requirements for the donation. He had walked more than 700 kilometers and swum more than 120 kilometers.

After the second transplant surgery, Hu fully recovered. The six years of medical treatment had turned her into a tougher person, and she started doing volunteer and charity work to help other people.

Due to medical ethics requirements, Hu could not meet her donor within two years after the transplant surgery since they were not genetically related. However, deep in her heart, she had always wanted to say thank you to her donor. 

Finally, ahead of this year's "World Bone Marrow Donor Day," Hu and Huang got the chance to meet. At the event, Hu was excited to meet her donor and she bowed deeply to express her gratitude to Huang.

"I want to say thank you to Huang Wei for saving me twice when I was in urgent need. I've always wanted to express my thankfulness to him in person, now I finally have the chance," said Hu during the event held in Beijing on September 15.

CMDP has facilitated 10,000 donations of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) over the past two decades, with more than 2.8 million potential donors listed on its database, according to the Red Cross Society of China.