Released: 4/28/2014 3:00 PM EDT Source Newsroom: City of Hope Contact Information

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Newswise DUARTE, Calif. Bone marrow transplants offer a second chance for people with life-threatening blood cancers and other hematologic malignancies. But many recipients, though overwhelmed with curiosity and the need to express their gratitude, can only dream of meeting the strangers who saved their lives. City of Hope is about to make that dream come true for two patients.

At City of Hopes annual Bone Marrow Transplantation Reunion on May 9, two grateful patients will meet the strangers, each hailing from different countries, who gave them back their futures.

Shes a world away, and weve never met, but were in a way genetic twins, said George Winston, the impressionistic, genre-defying musician with more than 20 instrumental albums under his belt. Winston received a lifesaving transplant from a young German woman two years ago, and cant wait to get to know her. Its amazing how they can locate a donor. I cant wait to meet her and just thank her from the bottom of my heart.

The meetings are the public focal point of City of Hopes annual Celebration of Life. Other meetings, and reunions, will take place throughout the event, attended by more than 6,500 bone marrow, stem cell and cord blood transplant recipients, their families and donors. All will celebrate second chances, scientific breakthroughs and transplant anniversaries.

Each survivor wears a button proudly proclaiming the years since his or her transplant. For some, its only a year. For others, a few decades. They celebrate their own recoveries, and the medical advances that have allowed this fellowship of survivors to grow from just a single patient 38 years ago at the first reunion, to thousands.

City of Hope helped pioneer bone marrow transplantation nearly four decades ago and is now a leader in bone marrow, stem cell and cord blood transplant, preparing to formally launch its Hematologic Cancers Institute. City of Hope has the only transplant program in the nation to achieve nine consecutive reporting years of over performance in one-year overall patient survival, according to the most recent data from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research, which tracks all such transplants performed in the U.S.

The reunion is a motivation that leaves us in awe of the many patients weve been able to help, but also humbled and focused on the patients currently in our care and those who will count on us in the future, said Stephen J. Forman, M.D., Francis & Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. We dont have any results so good that they cannot be improved. Were always focused on how we can do this better. Were never satisfied.

Two patients will be highlighted as part of the reunion, and will meet their donors for the first time ever.

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Bone Marrow Recipients Get Rare Chance to Meet Their "Genetic Twins" at City of Hope