Stranger Donates Life-Saving Bone Marrow to Pilot. 8 Years Later, He's on Her Flight — and the Moment Goes Viral (Exclusive)

• Alexandria Reimold was on her way home on Dec. 14, after visiting her mom in Houston

• While waiting for the flight to take off, she heard an announcement over the intercom from a pilot who shared how he had undergone a bone marrow transplant after being diagnosed with myeloid leukemia in August 2016 — and that his donor was on the plane

• As a bone marrow donor whose donation had helped save a life, Reimold was excited to see that someone else on the plane might have a similar story. Then, she realized the story was about her

• One passenger on the plane captured the special moment on camera and later posted it to TikTok, where it has since gone viral, amassing more than 600,000 views

Alexandria Reimold’s week had been difficult.

She was on her way home from Houston on Dec. 14, after visiting her mom, who had just had a heart attack. She was emotionally drained and exhausted. While waiting for the flight to take off, she sat in her seat, quickly downloading files onto her computer so she could catch up on work during the journey to distract herself.

As Reimold, a 30-year-old post doctoral scholar, busied herself preparing for takeoff, she heard an announcement over the intercom. Half-listening, she recalls hearing how a pilot, David Whitson, mentioned that eight years ago, he had undergone a bone marrow transplant after being diagnosed with myeloid leukemia — and that his donor was on the plane.

Reimold looked around. As a bone marrow donor whose donation had helped save a life, she was excited to see that someone else on the plane might have a similar story.

"Then I heard David's name, and I put two and two together," she tells PEOPLE exclusively, recalling the moment she realized the story was about her.

"I just got so excited and looked around," she continues. "It's a very funny experience to know that something is happening and for people around you to not know that it's you. So I was very, very excited when I saw David walk down the aisle."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Related: He Caught Taylor Swift's Broken Heel During Eras Tour Concert in Brazil. What Happened Next Changed His Family's Future (Exclusive)

In an interview with PEOPLE, Whitson, who is also a father, shares how he was diagnosed with leukemia in August 2016 after visiting the emergency room for a severe headache and flu. The captain recalls how, at the time of his diagnosis, doctors told him he wouldn’t survive unless he had a bone marrow transplant.

Luckily, they found a match in Reimold, who was 22 at the time and had become a bone marrow donor at 18 while an undergraduate at Purdue University through Be the Match.

"I didn’t think twice about it when I signed up," she recalls. "It seemed like a really great opportunity. The chances of matching are pretty low, so it was just one of those things — why wouldn’t you sign up for this? I had no idea what it would lead to."

In 2018, after Whitson’s successful transplant, Reimold and Whitson connected for the first time when they both received an email from Be the Match asking if they were interested in exchanging contact information. As soon as they got the email, they typed away.

Shortly after connecting online, the two met in person for the first time at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas for a donor-recipient reunion. They spoke, did interviews, and Whitson says he gave Reimold her first big hug, which was caught on camera.

As he was hugging her, he says he whispered in her ear, "You saved my life."

Since then, Reimold and Whitson have stayed in touch. Whitson even added Reimold to his United Airlines benefits as a way to thank her. So, when he recently saw that their flights were overlapping at the same airport, he decided to do something special.

"I had just flown in, and I was racing to catch her flight," he says. "I only had about a 40-minute window before she left, so when I landed, I contacted the captain operating the aircraft the day before and asked if he'd mind if I did this. I got clearance from the gate agents to make it happen."

"So I just made a little passenger address to the passengers, told them who I was and what was going on," he adds.

But to his surprise, one passenger on the plane captured the special moment on camera and later posted it to TikTok, where it has since gone viral, amassing more than 600,000 views.

"Never in a million years did I think someone would throw this on the Internet, and it would go around the world," Whitson says.

"My transplant will be eight years on Dec. 21," he continues. "This is a weird time for me — eight years ago, right now, I was in the hospital getting high-dose chemo. And so it’s also a time of miracles, and if we can just bring awareness and give people a little bit of joy, I thought, you know what?"

Now, with their story touching the lives of many, both Reimold and Whitson hope to use the opportunity as a chance to remind people to get tested and learn how they too can become a donor and potentially help save a life.

"I have been so excited to see people care about this," Reimold says. "A lot of times when you talk about bone marrow, people get a little off put or they get a little scared. But as a donor, and now at this point, I've actually donated twice, I can honestly say it's genuinely not as scary as it sounds."

"By giving up a day to sit in a hospital and chit-chat with some nurses, you can then go on to save someone's life," she adds.

Read the original article on People