MINOT, ND ( KXNET ) — This is a story of two men, living across the country from each other, that became intertwined through the donation of a blood stem cell transplant.

One signed up to be a donor, and a decade later, the other was a match after he was diagnosed with cancer.

“When I saw that email and saw that I was a potential match with someone, the first thing that came to mind was, yes,” explained Brian Hendrickson, of Minot.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And when you think about the odds, it’s just so exciting,” added Kim Hendrickson, Brian’s wife.

.03%, or 30 in 100,000, are the odds that a donor matches with someone in need of a blood stem cell transplant.

But the odds aren’t the only thing that makes this story so unique.

In 2013, Brian joined the national blood stem cell registry at Minot High School, where his wife was teaching, at the time. One reason was to try to be a match for a student there, who was battling cancer. But the meaning behind signing up ran much deeper than that.

“I was on the tail end of recovering from own cancer treatment,” explained Kim. “I had done 30 rounds of chemo, 36 rounds of radiation, and had two major surgeries at Mayo.”

But the phone never rang for Brian to donate. That is, until it did, 10 years later.

“I read that email the morning of December 21, so shortly before Christmas, of 2022. It was my son’s 17th birthday,” said Brian.

He was a match for Douglas Jantz, who had been diagnosed with myeloid leukemia, 1,600 miles away in California.

Brian then made the donation, a six-hour procedure that he says, is a small task for saving a life.

“You don’t know how many times I’ve just broke down and cried because it’s so incredible,” said Jantz, the stem cell recipient. “They flew this man to another state, he sat in a chair for six hours with needles in him, just for me.”

Little did the pair know that was just the start of their connection.

“I sent him a letter two weeks after the donation and I didn’t hear from him for months. And I thought maybe he didn’t make it. He had been given an expiration date, his doctor told him without a stem cell transplant, you will be dead in a year,” Brian explained and said Jantz finally wrote him back. “And in that letter he said, I am cancer-free.”

Letters turned to texts, and texts turned to phone calls, and those phone calls eventually turned into a face-to-face meeting, which all came to a head at the Minot airport on Thursday.

“I’ve been sharing with everybody, all my friends, family, neighbors, and even people I would meet at the store knew I was coming here today. It’s so exciting,” Jantz said with tears in his eyes.

“He said I hope you like hugs because I got a big one for you,” Brian said.

It was a key moment in a full-circle journey that all started with the selfless act, of wanting to save a life.

“How does that happen? It’s like god had divine intervention,” said Kim. “And for Brian, it was really what he has expressed to me as his way of giving back because the community gave so much to me.”

The Hendricksons and Doug plan to spend the weekend together, meeting family and friends, and spending time at their cabin on Lake Metigoshe.

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