Excrutiating waves of pain and nausea struck Scott Harris late on a Friday afternoon in July 1982. The owner of a Seattle juice bar, Scott felt so ill, he left work and drove to a medical center.

"I felt like I was dying," Scott said. In fact, he was, according to the emergency-room doctor.

Soon, Scott would find out he had acute myelogenous leukemia, a potentially fatal disease. Scott turned to his friend and neighbor, Bonnie Martinson, for help. She drove him to the hospital and stayed by his side as he underwent a month of chemotherapy. Once in remission, Scott was released to await a bone-marrow transplant at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

At that time, it was still a new procedure and doctors gave him a 20 percent chance of surviving. He spent the next 100 days at Fred Hutchinson, fighting to hang on to life.

"It was hard, and Bonnie, although she wasn't my girlfriend, was there almost every day," he said.

When he finally went home, Bonnie acted as his nurse despite holding down a full-time job. "She literally helped me survive," he said.

As with all good love stories, this one has a happy ending. Two years after his transplant, Scott asked Bonnie to marry him. She said, "yes."

Last fall, they celebrated the 20th anniversary of Scott's bone-marrow transplant.

"We're so grateful to Fred Hutchinson and the doctors and patients who pioneered the transplant," Bonnie said. "We'll always be grateful to those who lost loved ones in the struggle to find a cure. They saved Scott's life."

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