finally leo has a new kidney and thanks to an organ donor he can live a normal life. the 1st it's a gift it's mine now i have to look after it properly. the way it's also over for maggie thanks to a donor she now has a new look. just like you not a single day goes by when i don't think of the dyna i feel like this soulless part of me is in a funk. buying everything. an organ transplant gave leo and meg a 2nd chance at life we accompanied them for 4 years.

spring 2014 to 24 year old lay on hot dog looks like he's in perfect health but appearances can be deceiving. his kidneys have stopped working and that means his body isn't being detoxified he studies medicine in hamburg and is spending a year in paris he doesn't want to see illness to dominate his life. in the office and i that i'm vain enough to not want people to notice i'm sick and sometimes i'm my own worst enemy sometimes i get so exhausted i just can't keep going on about us blasting gun wasn't going to go. for the last 8 years little has needed regular dialysis he's waiting for a new kidney until he gets one of his quality of life is severely restricted. as a medical student he knows how long the wait for

a transplant can be. in germany the number of people willing to donate their organs is in decline. i'm funny is that it wasn't supposed to take that long i was 16 when it all started i was told an organ would definitely be found by the time i left school but that came and went then i was told it would happen before my 1st medical school exam i'm still waiting. 3 times a week he undergoes a 4 hour session to clean his blood it involves an overnight stay in the hospital. which is usually you know. it's a drag not to sleep at home in my own bed my own space and i'm attached to a machine that's pretty loud. but my life depends on that machine. is a machine. the session lasts until 5 o'clock in the morning then goes home

and sleeps it off. 54 year old measured hild was fed is also waiting for an organ transplant. meggie as her friends call or has a genetic disorder that led to abnormal blood vessel formation in her lungs and caused life threatening damage. my live my life changed dramatically 4 years ago. before i used to be a very active person i broke a motorbike i was full of energy. and then i went into hospital and they said i had to give up work. and that i

had to retire. and it has got worse from year to year. the former office clerk rarely gets to leave the house these days she has difficulty breathing and need supplemental oxygen her mother held spent says she's very brave. courage cheers us all out of that she's stronger than the rest of us and that helps us cope. to meg and her partner klaus becca it feels like all they're doing is waiting for a donor. you have great if you think we have no quality of life was. going to we can't just go out for a pitts or to the pub for a beer or take a car trip and. we can't do anything. we're stuck here and you were here 1st that maggie just wants to be able to enjoy life again. from house to

market for at 1st i was constantly waiting for the phone to ring. i was scared of the surgery because i know it's no picnic but now i know that is what i need i want to see my son get married i want to be a grandma my dream is to ride my motorbike a long leg a much shorter coach my men's dance troupe my men up i look like. they're all just waiting for me to be well again. today maggie has to go to the hospital for a long function test every 2 weeks her father drives her to the routine check up. you. know like for 6 minutes maggie has to walk as far as she can. she can't manage more than 4 metres it's obvious she's in desperate need of a new long obese not spy plane i was looking at this right i don't think i can last

like this for another 2 or 3 years so it really shifts given how much worse i've gotten just one yeah 5 don't think i'll need a new long in a couple of years let's work. in the. back to paris. if you remember. there was a girlfriend is visiting from hamburg he and danielle ahmed of the university she's also studying medicine you know. his illness is a challenge. so it puts a heavy strain on the relationship. of his with and he whispers that you mustn't be selfish but it's hard when i 1st came to paris to see him i'd never been here before as my buddies so of course the 1st thing i wanted to do was explore so i'd

been looking forward to it it's the city of love and he had the afternoon off but he'd been working in the hospital in the morning and when he came home he needed a nap. yes and then it was 6 in the evening and time for his dialysis and 6 labs done yourself for me to give you the. job. but there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon the clinic has called to tell a way about a potential donor but it doesn't work out the donor organ goes to another recipient . who don't you keep telling yourself and don't know will be found it'll definitely happen and then when it doesn't it's a setback sometimes it's hard to stay positive and in the. summer 2014 5 a suitable donor has died meggie is finally getting a new long. the transplant is

a complicated procedure that takes over 6 hours. maggie is recovering well the risk now is that her immune system rejects the new organ. and is the 1st of them purposed. to recall she and klaus are optimistic. it came out of the blue we got a call in the morning from the doctors saying they had to donor. or nothing came straight away and she had surgery in the evening we were all on the edge of our seats but it went well for the over the approach we're just so happy because we just want to start living our lives again. and autumn 2017 leo has a new kidney. because it was proving so hard to find a match his father donated a kidney. there was now 27 and enjoying life to the fullest. even daniella have

taken a year off to travel. at the moment they're exploring the us in a camper and. my life was always good it's just that i was very sick i didn't even realise how sick i was until i had a comparison then i realised what it's like when you can actually do everything you want to do that kind of a vicar's was my homecoming was when i was very. low for the transplant foreign travel was out of the question. sightseeing in san francisco i wander around chinatown in the past even short trips within europe were difficult. isn't well up a long time and if we wanted to go on holiday in italy we had to plan every last detail we had to make dialysis appointments everywhere and to get in touch with doctors and send over. i reports it was always

a massive undertaking. but it's all over. the difficulties of the last few years are long forgotten. past the friendship of laos still attends regular checkups and also takes medicine but he's adjusted easily to his new found freedom. i don't feel blood this is a normal life even forget that waiting for an organ donor is an exceptional situation once you have when you walk and things can go back to normal but it's not like a huge explosion or something for other. life has also gone back to normal the transplant was 3 years ago meggie is now 57.

at one point her body began to reject the new long. but her doctors managed to get the problem under control with medication. when you really believe it will be all right then it will be when i was determined to live dying just wasn't an option but the thought of my family having to grieve for me was terrible not the thought of dying. her parents say their faith in god helps them. i pray for mesh told every night and giving thanks for her health we mustn't ever take it for granted to use it. i guess. well. in. these days maggie lives with her parents she and klaus split up she says their relationship had been failing for

a long time. but it was only after the transplant when she regained her health that she found the strength to ended. it helped me. realize that it's not unusual for couples to split up after going through this experience. it was the best solution. when you smile no one pod like to find a new partner but it's not easy. i'm far. and i like someone who shares my interests. as more you should definitely have a motorbike. and he should like dancing to. coping with serious illness waiting for an organ transplant leo and danielle are have been through a lot together. they're

well aware of the toll such an experience can take on a relationship. if your life permanently hangs in the balance and that can start to become the bedrock of the relationship. went death no longer shadows your whole life and i can imagine that you might realize. that was a very dependent relationship. and that's no longer what i want. most. performable it's ok. with. you not to come your. way always sick daniela consider donating one of her own kidneys. it was a viable option but the couple had too many reservations.

and i think that if you had donated your kidney i might not of felt ok about it. in a nice cup it's good. it's good to have. this if i would have wondered if you felt so that you had to stay with me because it's the fuel that's been. missing my least yeah i didn't even notice i didn't like you anymore. for me there were no serious thanks for the skin of a businesswoman literally no no but you might not have wanted to stay with me but i would have felt you owed me about my goodbyes this was. this is that it was such a gift in that you were no longer free to make your own decisions. now that's true i think i would have felt obliged to stay together however good the relationship might be at the time you might feel differently when you get your life back and say sorry we no longer want the same things the way we used to see just in this movie.

but donation from a living person wasn't an option in maggie's case. winter 2018 making her started coaching her men's dance troupe again she's on her way to a performance. yes when i 1st went back i had to cry. it was so wonderful to be back. should the truth is that. the tension is mounting the group is on stage it's megastar next.

notice i'm nervous. but it'll be alright if. i do the lung transplant was worse in china more painful. than her carnival performances over thinking is happy it's a times like these she's a reminder that she's only alive because someone else died. i think about that person i wonder if it was a man or a woman. iowans of my happiness. i'll never forget that. leo is visiting his father they haven't seen each other for 6 months. alexander's glad to see a son traveling and living his life. he rarely talks about the fact that 3 years ago he donated

a kidney to leo. he doesn't foreclose motive any for me it was just what i had to do. the way i had to take you to dialysis it's very tight the time i come. home that's the idea that it's a gift where you're already half me i guess you can see it as a gift because most. yeah. it is a gift that's how a lot of people see it it's a nice description. but i see it in fairly phlegmatic yes the image is that it's not like i feel i have something all wrapped up with a bow inside me it's just part of me. that helps me get my head around it and hopefulness and this me off the 5th i'm. going to do went well you were the right age you know now you have to do what you have to do. you said it.

the. area. and when you lose a father alexander can still live a long and healthy life with one kidney because after his son had waited 9 years in vain for a new organ they decided alexander would be a living donor. i think that's more. than it would have been great if it could have worked out another way but it is what it is and he was starting to get worse and at some point you just need to decide. it was a pretty straightforward decision. the time had come. your life. missions therefore it's very frustrating for me to see that there's a steady decline in organ donors in germany and that the situation isn't improving . there's an immediate correlation between the number of people willing to donate an organ and the suffering of people who need one god. for.

he doesn't know her organ donor. but she wanted to express her gratitude in wrote a letter to the family of the deceased for the german organ transplant foundation to pass on. to the family of my organ donor it's very hard to lose a loved one but the person you lost gave me the best if you can give someone a smile. when i close my eyes and think of them i sometimes feel that they are with me because the i'm going home. they must have been a very special person i am eternally grateful best wishes the recipient. coverings tears to my eyes. i sent it to the foundation but if you days later i was informed that the family wasn't ready for such a letter. or and if he hadn't did i'd like to see one day but the foundation should

keep it for now that's something that's what they told me but now the letter can no longer be passed on and. data protection laws have been tightened spring 2018 maggie and her father are tinkering with her motorbike strangely enough she often feels especially close to her daughter when she's on the road. comforts why my wife's i've been in very dicey situations one side grounded a corner and the cock came straight at me father for all of mine as i though i didn't bat an eyelid i just drove on and shook my head in disbelief at the terrible driver when. i knew someone was looking out for me. of. do you think it's ok that i ride

a motorbike i enjoy it or stop it with my new lungs do you think i shouldn't or god . if you enjoy it and you're careful then i think it's ok. just as you ride a motorbike yourself i got my love of it for years and out. we both like to tinker a bit when it's a hobby we share. with someone on. the move this morning. leo and daniela are also busy pursuing their hobbies rock climbing on the west coast of america. the couple want to enjoy life to the fullest it's their way of celebrating the life saving kidney transplant believing we always want rock climbing we can't start

worrying now you can just avoid all risk and live in suspended animation and to us that would mean we have no quality of life. they're always eager to make up for lost time but he doesn't have anything to prove to himself who. are going to be running because i'm not competitive i don't go around comparing myself to people i'm great health i'm feeling bad about it i don't feel sick i do not go climbing with the thought at the back of my head that i'm sick and need to compare myself to others who are healthy. i like to see what normal people are capable of and see if i can do it 2. or 3 times to be. like my family get togethers with the latest addition to the family baby luisa maggie has become a grandma a dream has come true. but

the bad news is that she had a fall and broker or. not. it's a nuisance i'd love to be riding my motorcycle but i can't just choose the women's side of law. everyone's out on the roads and i can't join them but still it could be worse i might not be here at all. i just have to deal with that. medication weakens her immune system so her broken arm wasn't operated on that means the healing process is slower. but maggie is as upbeat as ever. they know her time is precious transplant at long last an average of 8 years making

is now 16 and has had hers for 4 years. it's by no means certain that she could survive another long transplant. their flat and i've resolved to live for a long time and i will watch for that i'm not worried. i met someone with a lung transplant in the rehabilitation clinic who's been living with mom for 26 years so that's completely exceptional but it does happen i'm determined to grow old. that. if those who are here they are always well aware that is transplanted kidney won't last forever. he doesn't think too far ahead for 9 years his life was touch and go

he's learnt to be a realistic. fisherman . based on what i feel and also i'm from sport and i take things one step at a time and i set myself modest goals that are easy to achieve this goal but also so i'm tired you have to manage the top set yourself you mustn't ever stand out of the i'm just hated her that's a strategy that works for me and i might. do

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