Following transformative experience, Palmer woman advocates for donor rights in Washington, D.C.

PALMER, Alaska (KTUU) – A Palmer woman is heading to the nation’s capitol next week to lobby legislators for donor registration funding and advocate for a bill aimed at protecting bone marrow and blood cell donors’ rights to job security.

Sandra Hinton, an administrator for Knik Charter School in Wasilla, registered as a bone marrow donor sometime in the late 2000s through the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). She can’t recall exactly what prompted her to register, only that it felt like something she needed to do.

“I got online and looked at it and I thought, ‘Well that’s easy, who wouldn’t want to do this for somebody?’ and so I signed up,” Hinton recalled.

She thought a lot about donating after she first registered, but when her phone didn’t ring for nearly a decade the idea left her mind.

“I actually forgot about it,” Hinton admitted. “And when I actually got the call, text, my phone blew up and I called back and I thought it was a joke.”

But it wasn’t a joke, Hinton was a 100% match with a young Florida man named Jonathan who had been diagnosed with leukemia. She traveled to Kansas City and underwent surgery. She never met Jonathan during this process — to her, he was a perfect stranger.

According to Hinton, donors can reach out to recipients after a one-year waiting period following the donation. After this time, donors can send recipients their contact information but it’s ultimately up to the recipients if they want to respond.

Jonathan responded.

“He came up [to Alaska] with his brother and his mom and dad, and we met in Denali,” Hinton said. “It was beautiful. It was the most amazing day of my life.”

Hinton said the meeting was an emotional one, as she and her husband embraced Jonathan and cried. She felt the same love for Jonathan that she would her own son.

Because of her donation, Jonathan lived for another 18 months. Hinton said her beloved match died after contracting an infection in his port. It was a year and a half that Hinton said Jonathan didn’t take for granted — traveling to Spain to watch his favorite soccer team, ringing in a new year under the Eiffel Tower and visiting Alaska to meet the woman who saved his life.

“He got a lot of life in that 18 months,” Hinton said. “I wish it could be forever. I wish it could.”

Jonathan’s death didn’t take anything away from Hinton’s experience as a donor. She said she would do it again in a heartbeat if asked.

Since the donation Hinton has become an advocacy volunteer for NMDP, running drives locally to drum up donor registration numbers and educate the public on bone marrow and blood stem cell research. She will remain active on the registry list until she reaches the age limit of 61 years old.

While in Washington, D.C., Hinton and her team will meet with lawmakers to ask for their support in passing H.R. 3024, a bill titled the “Life Saving Leave Act” that would amend the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to permit additional leave time for donors.

“This would ensure that somebody donating would have at least 40 hours that they would be able to take leave and not lose their job,” Hinton said.

According to research conducted by NMDP, approximately half of donors turn down the opportunity to donate due to the fear they will lose their jobs if they take off work.

Hinton and her team will also ask Congress for a $2 million funding increase for the C.W. Bill Young Transplantation Program to focus on donor recruitment efforts.

“There’s just so much to it and so many people need it,” Hinton said. “I can’t stop, you know, advocating for that, for helping people.”

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