Two men who changed each others lives forever by being on the giving and receiving ends of a bone marrow transplant met for the first time today and had their first chance to say, Thank you, face-to-face.

Thank you so much, Joe Yannantuono, 33, said to his bone marrow donor, Justin Jenkins, 35, as he embraced him in a hug in a live, emotional meeting on Good Morning America.

Yannantuono, not very long ago, was waging a two-year long battle for his life against stage 4 lymphoma.

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As his wife, Christine Buono, and his 4-year-old son, JJ Yannantuono, stood by his side, the family, from Staten Island, N.Y., got the unbelievable news that a man in Texas, a stranger, was a rare 10 for 10 genetic bone marrow match.

That stranger in Texas, Jenkins, of Dallas, had registered to be a bone marrow donor by chance 15 years ago when he was 21-years-old and donated blood because they were offering free snacks.

Soon after Jenkins was found to be a match, his stem cells were transported by airplane to New York and transplanted into Yannatuonos body in December 2012 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

For more than one year after the successful transplant, Yannantuono had no idea whose cells he was now carrying in his body.

As Yannantuono was rebuilding his life, Jenkins life was thrown a tragic curveball. His mother, who raised him on her own and had been a big part of his donation journey, was killed in a car crash.

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Bone Marrow Recipient Meets Donor Who Saved His Life

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