Fox 29’s Breland Moore saved a man’s life. They just met for the first time.

Breland Moore is still coming to terms with the idea she saved the life of a stranger almost three years ago, a man she just met for the first time.

“It was really surreal. It was really heavy,” the Fox 29 host told The Inquirer. “But it was really rewarding to be able to see him with his wife and just watch the joy they share.”

Moore traveled to Montreal over the weekend to meet Yves Laplante, a 69-year-old Canadian who speaks only French and was the lucky recipient of stem cells from her bone marrow. Laplante suffered from myelodysplastic syndrome, a type of rare blood cancer, and called Moore’s donation “a miracle” offering him a new lease on life.

“My vital functions have returned to normal,” Laplante said through a translator. “My future outlook is quite good, I am well, I have resumed my activities. It will soon be three years, my medical checkups are still normal.”

The meeting followed about a year of correspondence between the two, done through email due to the language barrier. Laplante, a retired television cameraman and lighting technician, was pleasantly surprised to discover Moore also worked on TV. But nothing prepared him for their first meeting at the Flyers-Canadiens game at Bell Centre in Montreal on Saturday.

“I had imagined that moment,” Laplante said, “but I can tell you that nothing worked to prepare me. I just wanted to go up to her and hug her, and say thank you, letting out a few sobs, of course, because the moment was exceptional and full of emotion.”

“It’s really emotional when you sit down and think about it,” Moore said. “But really, it wasn’t superhero-level stuff. I went and basically sat for a couple of hours with a slushy machine attached to me.

“It really was so simple,” Moore added, “in comparison to what could have happened to Yves.”

Prior to landing in Philadelphia at Fox 29 in 2021, Moore worked at several TV stations, including a gig covering the Buffalo Bills for WHEC in Rochester, N.Y. It was there she was assigned to cover a high school bowler whose life was saved after having received a bone marrow donation.

“It’s crazy, because every single aspect of this has been somewhat driven by my job,” Moore said. “That story prompted me to sign up.”

The process to donate bone marrow is different from donating blood, but that doesn’t mean it’s difficult. Moore said the first step was doing a 30-second cheek swab, which allows NMDP, the national marrow donor program, to match your genetic material with someone in need across the globe.

In many cases, the cheek swab is where it ends. But Moore received a text in October 2021 that she was a match to someone who needed a transplant to survive, so she went through the process of donating her bone marrow in April 2022, not knowing where it was going or who was receiving it.

“I knew that it was absolutely going to a person,” Moore said. “I just didn’t know anything about that person.”

Once it was clear Laplante responded well to the treatment and his prognosis was good, Moore was given his name and contact information. She said she was initially afraid to reach out, but was pushed to do so by Philadelphia Wings lacrosse player Alex Pace, whose bone marrow saved the life of a Connecticut father of four.

“I was like, all right, I’m just going to take the plunge,” Moore said. “I’m just going to write this email one night and send it, and if he doesn’t respond, he doesn’t respond.”

Sure enough, Laplante got back to her a few days later, and the two have remained in touch ever since. Their meeting in Montreal might not be their last — Laplante is planning a trip to Philadelphia, where the Montreal Allouettes fan hopes to take in an Eagles game at the Linc.

“Knowing that Breland is a proud Eagles fan and commentator,” Laplante said, “so I had no choice but to make them my NFL club.”

More than 75 diseases can be cured by a bone marrow stem cell donation, but over 70% of patients do not match well with a donor, according to NMDP.

The numbers become more stark for people of color due to the lack of ethnically diverse donors. Latino patients have just a 48% chance of matching with a donor, while the odds drop to just 29% for Black patients.

“They don’t have enough Black and brown people, which is why me being of mixed race is so important to be in there, because it’s all based on genetics,” Moore said.

Anyone between the ages of 19 and 40 can join the NMDP’s registry. For more information on becoming a donor, visit the organization’s website.

“You have to talk about stem cell donation. Talk to your children, who will talk to their children,” Laplante said. “For some it will be a great experience, for others it will be life.”

Fox 29 cameras followed Moore to Montreal during her emotional meeting with Laplante. The special, A Lifeline to Life, will air Friday at 6:30 p.m.