There were tears when Adriana Aviles and Mike Laureano met, but they were tears of joy and gratitude.
Aviles, now 7, was diagnosed with leukemia when she was just 4 years old. She needed a bone marrow transplant, and Laureano, now 29, had signed up to be a bone marrow donor during a drive at his university. "I was a healthy individual living my life, so if I could help allow someone else to do the same then I, as a human being, have an obligation to do so," he told Inside Edition.
The Be the Match organization lets donors and recipients meet a year after the donation is made, and Aviles decided that she was ready to connect with Laureano. When he arrived, she ran into his arms and started to sob, telling him, "Thank you so much." Her mother, Jessy Aviles, told Inside Edition that her daughter "might only be 7 years old, but her heart and mind are wise — she knows how incredible this gift of life was." Now, she said, "we have a bond with him that will last forever." Catherine Garcia