Bride shares dance with bone marrow donor who saved her life

SARTELL, Minn. (KMSP) - Greta Hokanson became a nurse because of the bone marrow transplant she had a several years ago, saying a donor from Arkansas saved her life. So when Greta got married, she decided to thank the man who made her wedding possible.

When Hokanson was just 15, she was diagnosed with leukemia. Doctors said her best chance of survival would be a bone marrow transplant.

Hokanson found her perfect match through the National Bone Marrow Registry: Danny Daniels from Arkansas, who she met a few years later.

So when Hokanson and her husband Tony got married in Sartell, Minn. earlier this month they had to include Daniels on their guest list.

"My wedding day was one I wasn't I was going to make it for so to be there that was amazing and to have the person who saved my life be there was just unbelievable."

At the wedding, Daniels got a standing ovation and when Hokanson danced with him to the song "Angels Among Us" by Alabama, there was hardly a dry eye in the house.

"Very emotional. Prior to the wedding only my parents and myself had met him so having the rest of the family meet him and have them face to face. he wasn't just a name anymore. He was a real life hero who saved my life."

Even as Hokanson begins the ne xt chapter in her life, she'll never close the book on her guardian angel and the moment they shared on her special da y.

"[It] felt like a father with his daughter getting married. I was very happy," Daniels said. "She married a great guy. He's a nice guy she couldn't have done any better."

Hokanson hopes her story demonstrates the need for people to become bone marrow donors.

How to become at donor

Join the bone marrow donor registry at bethematch.org