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

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 …