we talked to those who began the struggle for freedom and those who showed personal courage for all that know it will score you know telephone call from more school going to down here than in the courtroom we have to go off the wall didn't surprise me i saw it coming 10 years before the flood sure number one. what does it take to change the course of history. raising the iron curtain starts september 30th on d w. finally leo has a new kidney 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 meg thanks to a donor she now has a new long. and it's hard to not a single day goes by when i don't think of the dyna i feel like this soul is part of me is it a fundamental thing by me as. an organ transplant gave leo and maggie a 2nd chance at life we accompanied them for 4 years. to the spring 2014 to 24 year old lay on hot being in god 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. as an idea i'm vain enough to not want people to notice i'm sick 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 leo has needed regular dialysis he's waiting for a new kidney until he gets one 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 from 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. nor. its usual. i know it's just 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. and it is a machine. the session lasts until 5 o'clock in the morning then later goes home and sleeps it off. 54 year old meshed 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. by living my life changed dramatically 4 years ago. and doc. was with our folks who are used to be a very active person i wrote 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. when i did just got worse from year to year. the former office clerk rarely gets to leave the house these days she has difficulty breathing and needs supplemental oxygen her mother health spared 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 close becca it feels like all they're doing is waiting for a donor. you have a problem with creative youth and we have no quality of life we're. going to be can't just go out for a pitts or to the pub for a beer or take a car trip because we can't do anything life's over this is we're stuck here and you were here 1st that maggie just wants to be able to enjoy life again. from house to market and the 1st i was constantly waiting for the phone to ring i'm going to the high 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 write my motorbike a long leg a majority coach my men's dance troop my men up i look like. they're all just

waiting for me to be well again of work. 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. he knew. it was for 6 minutes maggie has to walk as far as she can. if. she can't manage more than 4 metres it's obvious she's in desperate need of a new long obese not cycling i was a little 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 got in just one year 5 don't think i'll need a new long in a couple of years let's work. in the. back to paris.

and remember. there was a girlfriend is visiting from hamburg he and danielle are medical university she's also studying medicine there. 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 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 questions like slow down yourself so you did you knew that. but there's

a glimmer of hope on the horizon the clinic has called to tell a while about a potential donor but it doesn't work out the donor organ goes to another recipient . 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 rather than when the. summer 2014 a suitable donor has died maggie 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 for this. week. she and

klaus are optimistic. conference or ocean the moment he came out of the blue we got a call in the morning from the doctors saying they had a donor. and if we came in 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 your birth we're just so happy because we just want to start living our lives again. in. 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 u.s. in a camper and. my life was always good it's just that i was very sick i didn't even realize how sick i was until i had

a comparison then i realized what it's like when you can actually do everything you want to do that kind of a vicar's does my homecoming was when i was very. before 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 at home you had to make dialysis appointments everywhere and get in touch with doctors and send over reports it was always a massive undertaking. but i was all over. the difficulties of the last few years are long forgotten. you. asked mr french if they are still attends regular checkups and also takes medicine

but he's adjusted easily to his new found freedom. i don't feel this is a normal life even forget that waiting for an organ donor is an exceptional situation once you have a new organ things can go back to normal but it's not like a huge explosion before something for a. life has also gone back to normal the transplant was 3 years ago maggie 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 use is. managed focused. 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. up with a well off hour when i realize that it's not unusual for couples to split up after going through this experience. it was the best solution. then if not

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 money should definitely have a motorbike. and he should like dancing to. coping with serious illness waiting for an organ transplant leo and daniela 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. because i went deaf no longer shadows your whole life i can imagine

that you might realize. that was a very dependent relationship. and that's no longer what i want to opinion with your most. recent. performance ok. i will tell you not to come. but when lael was 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. and i got this. is just. this is the time i would have wondered if you felt this event you had to stay with me because if you'd asked me

to say i'm missing my list yeah because i didn't like you anymore. for me there were no serious 911 commission in little bits as i'm so no no but you might not have wanted to stay with me but i would have thought you owed me about my advice 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 a miss moving. donation from a living person wasn't an option in maggie's case. winter 2018

making his started coaching her men's dance troupe again she's on her way to a performance. yes the my 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 troopers on stage it's megastar next. notice i'm nervous that but it will be all right take my. eyes to the lung transplant was worse than 10 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. i dove into my happiness. i'll never forget that. leo is visiting his father they haven't seen each other for 6 months. alexander is glad to see a son travelling and living his life. he rarely talks about the fact that 3 years ago he donated a kidney to leo. he was listening to any for me it was just what i had to do to deal easier by the way i had to take you to dialysis it's very tight the time had come. to the idea that it's a gift where you're already how awfully for me i guess you can see it as

a gift because most. got me about. 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 you meant it as a whole 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 sometimes from years on this me off the 5th i'm. going to do went well you were the right age it's now you have to do what you have to do. you said it. from the bay area. and 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. has more. vision than it would have been great if

it could have worked out another way but it is what it is. he was talking to get worse and at some point you just need to decide. it was a pretty straightforward decision. time a come. your life in the. air force 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. of. the doesn't know her organ donor. but she wanted to express her gratitude and 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 i'm good at 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 does the under her. why must have been a very special person i am eternally grateful best wishes the recipient. of rings 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 in the head that 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 want to corner and a cock came streisand me far under my nose 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 sup 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. but just as you ride a motorbike yourself i got my love of it from the us and out.

we both like to tinker a bit when it's a hobby we share. them with. 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. we always want rock climbing we can't start worrying now you can just avoid all risk and live in suspended animation and so on us that would mean we have no quality of life. there was eager to make up for lost time

but he doesn't have anything to prove to himself. going to you might in fact 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 of 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. it's a nuisance i'd love to be riding my motorcycle but i can't choose the women's so

long. 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. so 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. after flight that i was 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 one for 26 years so that's completely exceptional but it does happen i'm determined to grow old. that. if there's going to be good news here they 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 realistic. fiction. 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 and just go with the

side so i'm tired so you have to manage the toxic set yourself you know the several stand out and you under-stated know that's a strategy that works for me and i might talk.

to. me. here's how the variance celebrate their october best. they've been flocking to the shingle theater for 150 years.

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disappointed that. closely global news that matters d. w. made for mines what's the connection between bread but home and the european union dinos guild motto w correspondent at the baker can stretch this 2nd line with the rules set by the team. stepping recipes for success strategy that make a difference. baking bread on d.w. . where is home. with your family scattered across the globe. turning back to the roots government of the. bush family from somalia live around

the world to them one of them needed urgent assistance and. family starts october any on. this is d w news live from berlin. counting gets underway in afghanistan's presidential election the votes are placed in the shadow of taliban attacks several people were killed and dozens injured in blasts near polling stations also coming up protesters mark 5 years of demonstrating for democracy in hong kong they were out on the streets as they have been for the past 4 months this time marking the anniversary

of a so-called umbrella of the plant. and a german soccer by.