Sherry Hanley of Slatington just met the German man who saved her life eight years ago.

Hendrik Gericks had never met Hanley until recently either.

He donated stem cells through “Be the Match” program in 2016 when Hanley was battling leukemia.

Without the donation, Hanley would not be here.

“This is a selfless, young man who saved my life, and he’s my hero,” Hanley said.

Hanley learned about “Be the Match” through Dr. Yacoub Faroun, an oncologist at St. Luke’s University Health Network, who treated her up until — and after — her stem cell transplant.

Hanley was a deputy sheriff for Lehigh County in 2015 when she discovered a pinkish blotch on her skin. She thought it may have been related to a MRSA outbreak at Lehigh County Prison, where she often was responsible for transporting prisoners to the county courthouse.

After passing out at work, Hanley was rushed to St. Luke’s Allentown Campus, and after an initial round of blood work, she was transferred to the Cancer Unit at St. Luke’s Bethlehem Campus.

That’s where Faroun delivered the news: She had leukemia.

“Dr. Faroun was so personal and compassionate,” said Hanley, who spent 40 days at the hospital while undergoing chemotherapy. “Dr. Faroun and his staff were wonderful. They did whatever was necessary. They gave me six months to live if I didn’t have a donor.”

After the donation, “Be the Match” only allows anonymous contact through their organization for a period of time.

For Hanley and Gericks, it was two years before they were allowed to learn each other’s identity and were free to have contact.

The two originally planned to meet in 2020, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Gericks returned to school to finish his master’s degree. They finally met in August.

“He came running up to me, and we hugged and hugged. It seemed like I didn’t want to let him go,” Hanley said.

Faroun and Hanley’s husband, Jeff, were on hand, as were others.

“He’s a very talented and smart, smart young man,” Hanley said of Gericks.

She noted that the “Be the Match” program is very popular in Germany.

“It’s big over there. A lot of people participate in the stem cell program,” Hanley said. “He got swabbed over there at one of the events in September (2016).”

It was the same month that Hanley learned she had leukemia.

In November 2016, Gericks was told that someone was a match.

“People can swab and donate and never get called. But he just did it and in a matter of two months, there was a match,” Hanley said. “You talk about the stars being aligned.”

Before that, Hanley thought she had two bone marrow donors, but timing wasn’t right for either.

“So that was like another ‘no,’” she said. “So I was really getting scared, thinking, ‘This is not going to happen. I’m not going to be here. This is it.’ Then all of a sudden, it was like they had someone who was a perfect match. That’s my story.”

Hanley had been given less than a half-year to live before Gericks’ stem cell match was discovered.

“Now, I’m approaching nine years since my diagnosis,” Hanley said. “If it wasn’t for St Luke’s Cancer Unit and Dr. Faroun helping me get to the level of transplant, I wouldn’t have known about the change of stem cells and ‘Be the Match’.”