This is a series about life. About death. About life after death.
This is Diana King. She died at the age of 54 from cancer. So we'll just check her ID. OK.
Her body is about to undergo an extraordinary process. There's an obsession in this surgery with me. Mm-hm.
OK. One, two, three. Because Diana is one of 700 people a year who donate their bodies to science. These will be used as tools for training anatomy and medical students, and by surgeons practicing pioneering procedures. In a UK television first, with unprecedented access to donors, we follow the last months of their lives and their journey after death.
Get rid of these horrendous roots, get rid of my flicky fringe. Yeah. You've never had a fringe.
I know, I've never had a fringe. Well, do you remember when it grew back curly? After the first lot of chemo.
Well, my fringe gets to a certain length and it goes curly now. Today is very special for 54-year-old nurse Diana. She's having a party and wants to look her best. Diana is dying.
What's happening there actually? Sudden sham words, totally informal. Yeah, well what you want, so if you want to get dressed up, get dressed up.
If you don't, don't. Five years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had chemotherapy and went into remission.
It's just sort of like seeing everybody there together, that sort of like means something, and just sort of like people being happy, so, yeah, that should be good. But a year ago, the cancer returned.....and spread. Really hit depression, major anger, massive anger. This wasn't going to happen, I wasn't going to allow it to happen.
I'd beaten cancer once, I was going to beat cancer again. Except this time I wasn't. And that's where I went into complete denial, because the CT scan showed there was extensive spread, heart, lungs, sternum, lymph nodes, and I just thought, you're attacking no prisoners.
And I was told six months, and my life changed completely. The last three weeks, it's been really, really bad. Yeah, but that's temporary. It's just because you've been really, really down. It's a very fatal feeling.
I wouldn't say it's panic, it's like suddenly you've hit that wall and that's it. Or you can see that wall coming and you can't stop it. That's the nearest I can describe it. You don't want it to be, it's not going to be.
You can't do anything about it. Diana's husband and daughter are making last-minute party preparations. Just going to put this in the rear. Okie-dok. That's not straight.
Your side needs to go down a bit. And then shall we put some balloons on the lights over there and on the other ones? Yes, can do. Mum was like my world when I was growing up.
She brought me up on her own, which was hard. She worked two or three jobs, she took me to school. She only just made ends meet, but I never saw any of that.
You know, Christmases and birthdays were amazing, everything was happy. Celebrating Diana. It's a big bash. These don't want riding on the other ones, I'll go and get them.
Alright. I met Diana at a pub in Accrington. We had a few drinks and it was the following Saturday that we started really seeing each other. And we hit it off.
We got married. On the 6th of April 1994. So it's been 20 years. I've got a white one.
Diana and her family didn't think she would see this. day. A year ago she was given six months to live.
We've got one more white one and how many blue ones have we got? One more I think yeah. She's beaten her prognosis.
The party is also a celebration of the fact that she's stolen a few extra months of life. Whether she was fit for it or not she was determined for this party to go ahead and she's gonna be here. She might not be bopping away, but she'll be here.
She'll be saying hello to everybody and having a laugh. But the effort is taking its toll. Still tired, but I've got better and better when painkillers kick in, to be honest.
My back just doesn't appear to support itself anymore. You can see the cancer in my mum every day. It starts off with little things like weight loss, being tired, breathlessness.
But ultimately I'm watching her die. Diana doesn't want death to be the end of her story. She's taken the decision to donate her body to science. There are 19 institutes across the UK that accept donated bodies for research and training.
Diana's body will go either to the University of Liverpool, where she'll be used to teach anatomy students... Body donation is very important. For example, in teaching, we believe that it's essential that medical students and anatomy students get the opportunity to dissect.
That's the best way that they can learn about the structures. of the human body. Or she'll go to Newcastle, where her body will be used to train surgeons. Without people donating their bodies, we would have to rely on simulators and trainees practising on live patients in the operating room.
With the bodies that have been donated to our unit, we can allow them access to performing all of the minor and major procedures without putting patients'lives in danger. In this country we don't talk about death enough. We don't consider the impact that's needed for not just for organ donation but for body donation as well as for research and teaching.
When I first heard about body donation, I felt that I could be of a bit more use and it gave me something to hold on to, to make sense of a death that I still feel is going to come too early. When Diana announced she was donating her body, her family reacted badly. I got a bit upset at this and we had words which was wrong at the end of the day, but I just said to her, I said, I can't accept it, you know, because it's just unusual.
When Mum first talked about body donation, people were shocked. It was a bit too out there. The ones closest to her still, I don't think, fully have got their head round it.
Diana's made her decision. The only question for her now is how to make the most of the time she has left. Thank you so much for coming.
Yeah, that's lovely. I've got the flat shoes on. I know, I'm boring, am I?
I know. I can't get the heels on. Tonight's party isn't just a birthday party. Thank you so much.
Happy birthday. Thank you. Do you want one?
It's Diana's last chance to say goodbye to some of the most important people in her life. A lot of special people are here. Polly!
Polly, what's on you? You look fantastic. It's all eyes, it's black.
It's contact lenses. I'm worth it. You look lovely. You look amazing. Oh, I wish I felt it.
I must admit, I'm so tired, yeah? Yeah, of course. But I'm here, and that's the most important thing. She's touched a lot of people's lives and she's inspired a lot of people but it's a double-edged sword. It's still there and you still physically can see it.
I love you too. We pretend it's not happening for our own sanity and for Mum's sake. None of us cope. We all have private moments and we all struggle.
Yeah. I'd just like to say to everybody, thank you very much for making the effort to come here. It means a lot to me. I'm not going to get sentimental, but this is a birthday that I didn't expect to see.
But it's absolutely fantastic to see you all here, friends and neighbours and family. And you're all extremely special to me. You have a big place in my heart. You're all very, very special.
Thank you. Thank you Diana. Diana and Wayne share the last dance. It's brought us together at first.
No disrespect to Wayne, I thought he's not going to go with us. He's coming to terms with it now I think. She's a fighter, but there will come a time when she can fight as much as she wants and it won't make any difference.
And I just feel at the moment I'm in limbo, I'm just waiting for it to happen and I don't want it to happen. Some body donors have less time to come to terms with death. Every year, hundreds of people sign up to bequeath their bodies. But not all have the chance to discuss their decision or put their lives in order.
77-year-old Mike lives alone. He has terminal cancer. Have I had a fulfilling life? I've been very selfish in the fact that I've led the life that I wanted to lead. I was diving for 50 years, and I enjoyed every minute of exploring the seabed where man may have not gone before.
His daughter Anne lives in Chicago. He, I think, came to a point where he realised he'd missed out on a lot of our lives. I knew he loved us. He just came from that generation where parents, when they divorced, often, you know, they were absentee parents.
Just under six months ago, Mike was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. A blood cancer. I was told I had got about 12 weeks to live and it really did surprise me the fact that the impact it had on me. I didn't think I would be as moved as much as I was.
Mike's outlived his prognosis but knows that time is very short. I'm not having any more treatment other than the few tablets I'm now taking and the blood transfusions which I are every two weeks and I suppose that's keeping me going. He's had to make some quick difficult decisions. But one of them was easy. It's not that I can fight off death, but I knew I had to plan for one day that it would happen and I thought the best way of handling it easily and simply, where I hope...
that I can be of more use is if I donate it to science. I just rang up Liverpool and they put me through. It was as simple as that. Sometimes donors will ring up exactly knowing what they want to do. They've been talking to a friend or a neighbour that's done it.
Sometimes they'll do it because they don't want to fuss. They don't want their family to have any worry at the time of their death. So it'll all be sorted by the universe. As a bit of a fractured family, I think it was part of Michael's thinking that it would be easier for us if he made this plan. And, you know, once he'd set on this plan, that's what he wanted.
So I think there was some element of him considering us in that too. I have no future, but maybe 10, 20, 30 years down the line. You know, with the research that's going on and providing, they have the remains to work on, and enough bodies are donated, you know, something just might happen.
Just a few days after this interview, Mike's condition began to deteriorate. He was admitted to Bangor Hospital. It's been nine days since Diana's party. Diana and Wayne are in Scotland for a special occasion.
We got married on the 6th of April 1994. We've been up to Gretna Green every year, except for two. We renewed vows 10 years ago and now this one, 20 years. Hello.
Hiya. Check in? Yes, please. Since the party, Diana's been feeling much better. OK, so you're in Adam and Eve and I'll just take you up and show you to your room.
Thank you very much. Lovely, thank you. It's been not the easiest of marriages. We've had lots of ups and downs, but we have survived and we have come through together.
Wayne's been very, very supportive over the last year, which has been a little bit difficult, to say the least, and he has come through. and that's sort of like made me quite happy really. There's always at the back of your mind that this is possibly the last time that I will be here.
I can't pretend it's not there. I've learnt to live with it a little bit now and I either give in to it and don't do anything or I am trying now to do all the things in my life that I've wanted to do. The only thing that they haven't got, unless it's in the sparring, is a misky-doo.
Ah yes. It's not a real one. I think the first time we got, when we first got married, it was a real one.
They don't trust us with knives anymore, thankfully. Today's a celebration of their marriage, but it's also a realisation of how Wayne's life will change. You know, when she's gone, she's gone and I'll miss her. Even though we argue and fight sometimes, I'll miss her. Because I've been with her for 20-odd years.
12, 22 years. And it's hard. What's it ever?
This time last year I must admit we didn't know whether she'd be here or not but she is and that's the main thing that counts. Wayne, will you continue to love, comfort and honour Diana, to be her companion through all the joys and sorrows and pains of life, and be faithful to her so long as you both shall live? I will.
Diana, will you continue to love, comfort and honour Wayne, be his companion through all the joys and pains of life, and be faithful to him so long as you both shall live? I will. Can you take Diana's right hand and your right hand?
Diana, on the day of our marriage, I took you to be my wedded wife. For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. in sickness and in health to love and to cherish from that day forward until we are parted by death. And this I refer in that solemn vow. As you, Diana, now take Wayne's right hand.
Wayne. On the day of our marriage, I took you to be my wedded husband, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish from that day forward and to impart it by death. And today I affirm that solemn vow. The renewal of wedding vows has been a turning point for Diana. It's refocused her on living rather than dying.
Gradually, the anger went away and I started to come to terms with things and I needed to look forward to the future. That fascinator looks fabulous, doesn't it? I thought right, I take a grip of this now and I start looking at what I want to do with the last months of my life and I start to take those choices back. Three weeks ago Diana renewed her wedding vows. That and an improvement in her health has given her a new drive.
A trip to the zoo with her daughter wouldn't have been possible just a few weeks ago. So how are you feeling today mum? Okay, quite good. Pain levels over the last two or three days have really improved.
Yeah. It's been really quite strange. have changed from that thoracic area.
And although it's coming round and bending and going up to my shoulder, it's meant that I can walk a lot better. Which is good, and that's what you want. Well, and I want more stuff, really.
You know, I want to try... and be me for as long as possible really. You're beautiful.
Oh, thank you. Oh, thank you. We've both kind of been brought up with animals and this mutual love of them and mum's obviously been on safari so this is like the closest that we can kind of get and do it together and it's more things to look back and share, you know.
And like I've never met a pelican before and the fact that they go, ha, ha, when they're being fed is fantastic. it's something different that you're not going to get to do every day you know that you can just you can cherish and go this is great my mom is a very proud person and she won't let the world see what's going on inside It is like a cup of warm milk that's got a film on top of it and once you poke your finger through that film that's your emotions underneath and your film's what the rest of the world sees that everything's fine. I've been told to cry, told it to release but it feels like you're giving in to it a little bit. I do cry, I cry in shower. Yeah, nobody can see that.
I'm not that strong, yeah. Do you want to come up with me? Yeah.
So even on a day like today, you know, it's happy and it's good, but I know tonight she'll go home and cry because it's one last thing that we've done together and it's one more special memory that... is going to be the final thing. They will just... Like, if you just pick it up and feed it over your shoulder, they'll take it.
Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! LAUGHTER She likes you. She's got your hair. Oh, you're amazing. Hi.
Hi. Oh, a kiss. Thank you.
Things are a bit different now aren't they and things mean a bit more. They do. But in a nice way. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I will sleep tonight, I am tired. So will I.
It's just two weeks since the trip to the zoo, but it seems a world away. Diana's pain has returned. She's seeing her oncologist.
Hello, Diana. How have you been getting on? My back, that knowing pain has been getting worse. So I've been needing to take more R&R through that.
It feels like I've either been scolded or a nettle rash. And it's just on the right side? Just on the... On the other side as well?
No. The touch is really, really sensitive. When the cancer came back, she was prescribed the drug tamoxifen. Yeah. And you're coping with the treatment with the Tamoxifen?
I've not gone back on it. I'll be honest about that. Don't get me wrong. I feel well enough now to go back on it.
So I will go back on it. because it does look like it's shrunk things down, doesn't it? It has halted things. So what are you on for the pain at the moment?
At the moment, 20mg of morphine twice a day, 150 pre-gab. paracetamol through the day. I'm sort of going every six hours with that.
My hospice nurse phoned up and I felt a bit rubbish, so I told her about the pain. This morning, she's brought up one at Doctors'Hospital Hospice. He's told me different ways that they can go with pain relief.
So he asked me originally to come in for a couple of days into hospice, but I don't want to. No, I really don't want to. A year ago, Diana was admitted to a hospice for specialist pain management, but found it tough.
They tried to get me involved in the groups and the activities that they provide, which are good. But the first group that I went to, I came across a patient that less than six months ago I'd been looking after on my ward, and I found that really difficult. difficult to take.
I think it's more the realization that you are ill and you're now terminally ill. It's something that I particularly want to think about. The other odd thing that's happened, I've lost sensation in the bottom part of my jaw.
Just like when you go to dentists and you're injected, yeah, it's from there, just up to my mouth, it's completely numb. The hospice doctor said he felt that it possibly needed further investigation. In your case, it's always better to get a scan and rule things out. Yeah. We should do.
another scan of your brain and I think we'll concentrate on the base of the skull if there is anything that's where I would expect the lesion to be and I think we'll just do an MR scan of your spine throwing that in just to make sure that everything is still okay I'll get the scans in the pipeline they should be done in the next month and we'll discuss the results While Diana waits for the scan, there's something important she's determined to sort out. Well today I'm meeting Andrew Horsfall who's the hospital chaplain and basically it's to discuss final arrangements for memorial service in view of the body donation. My family won't get my body back for a considerable length of time after my death. I feel if I have a memorial service, which I want to be a happy one, a celebration of my life rather than a funeral as such, then this will hopefully give them closure.
Everything to do with this memorial service, there's got to be some sort of a connection. I've worked here for over 10 years and the chapel is a place that I feel is very, very peaceful and it fits me. So that's the reason why I want it here.
I've written everything down. Certain things I need to ask you. Whether it's appropriate, whether it's too long. A couple of things. Can they be done?
Can they not be done? Right, of course. Yeah, that's fine.
Just share the ideas that you've got and then we'll... I will do. We can take it from there, really. Right, OK.
Basically, what's going to happen, obviously there'll be nobody. There's going to be... sort of big, big spray of red roses that sort of, like, represents me. Yes. Red roses, why?
It's a symbol of love. Basically, this service is about me wanting to say to the people that are here that I love you. I don't want to be saying goodbye to them as such. Yeah. Yeah.
I move on to my family next. This bit's hard, okay? I especially want to say to my family that I hope always to be with you. And these words are hard to write. And no matter what, I'll always be there.
And I feel this strongly. And I can't and I won't say goodbye. Yeah.
There you are, love. Thank you. That's that.
Right. So how did it go today, then? OK. Slightly emotional in bits. I mean, everybody's been put in a situation that nobody wants to be put into.
It's a terminal diagnosis. It's a reality that Wayne also has to face. Not the sort of thing you want to think about just yet.
It needs doing now though, doesn't it? This is something that can't be left till last minute. No, it can't, no. I was hired initially for my husband Wayne when I started making inquiries because it confronted him that this was happening.
Diana's visit to the Chatelaine has forced them to have a frank conversation about her death. I mean, if you were to die a normal death or something like that with it... Well, I will die a normal death. No, no, you know what I mean. We don't come to anything like that.
If you were just to die a normal death or something like that, then you wouldn't have organised it. your funeral. Well, nobody would if they didn't know they were going to die. You know, I didn't want to face it.
I didn't want to go down and do all of that. It's not easy because it makes it real to me. Yeah. And I'm saying goodbye to everybody.
I know you are. Yeah. So...
And everybody's saying goodbye to you. Yeah. I hope to God that when things do finally happen that I can handle it. I know I'll be in tears.
I know that what she's doing is a good thing. I think to myself, will I manage? I should do, I've got lots of friends and family that's there to back me up.
And I'm dreading that time. Good morning, Bequia the law office, Dee speaking. Oh, I'm really, really sorry. And when was that? Oh, I'm sorry.
So do you know when the death certificate will be signed? Will it be sometime this morning? I had this text from the heart nurse who said you need to call me now.
She told me that he'd passed away about half an hour before, but it was still a shock, even knowing how sick he was and knowing that he was very frail. This is Mr. Michael Poe. Yep, yep, it's fine. As Mike's life ends, his body is beginning a new adventure.
We've just received the donor, so we're just checking the paperwork to check the identification. I'm going to take the body up to the washroom. They thought he'd had an internal bleed, which is what the consultant warned me would be the outcome for somebody with this illness. If there wasn't a big episode like a heart attack, that it would be a haemorrhage of some sort.
Mike has been accepted as a body donor at the University of Liverpool. His body will be used to teach anatomy students. But first, he needs to be prepared for class. It's Chase, the department's really quiet. It's normally really busy, isn't it?
It is, yeah. It's Saturday, it's weekend. I know.
I'm here at the hospital today for an MRI scan. When I was on holiday, I've lost feeling in the lower part of my face, which may be something or nothing, or maybe something serious. So I'm here. It's mixed feelings, two sides of the coin, a little bit of trepidation in case there has been some progression.
But also I'm going to know exactly what's going on and then I can know what to expect. Is everything okay there Mrs. King? Yeah, thanks, it's fine.
So we're just going to do the first scans. If you try not to swallow or take any big size for these ones, okay? Nice and still.
The doctor says that she has some metastases in her spine, so we're just making sure that that's not compressing the spinal cord and might lead to pain in her back. Diana's had a good couple of months, but the scan will reveal what the future holds. There's some changes in there so we just want to make sure that it's not sort of compressing the spine at all so I'm just planning some extra pictures through there. And just very still for the next four minutes, you're doing really well. I don't know what I'm gonna be facing.
If it does progress, it could be quite nasty. I'm not a brave person. Yeah, I'm scared. Diana's pain is getting worse. I'm not quite as positive as what I'd like to be.
For the last two weeks the pains increased and that's meant doing very little. So I'm hoping that I can get better. I hope him today that Dr Appel may be able to help a little bit. Best friend Kath is taking Diana to the oncologist as Wayne has to work. He's hoping to...
join them later. I've got a few issues with pain. Where is the pain? It's here. Yeah.
Yeah, down my back. It's aggravated with movements. I think the reason why your pain is getting worse is that your scan has got worse. The scan on the brain was absolutely fine, but the scan on the back, the bones have become a bit more involved with the cancer cells.
And it's spread to other virtual... So I think whatever we've been doing in terms of trying to hold the cancer isn't working. We've really only tried one thing, haven't we?
That's the Tamoxifen. So we need to think of something that you can tolerate and that will regain control of the cancer again. We got into an oxyvent, I didn't take it, probably for a period of about six weeks. Would that have made any difference? No.
Not in a great scheme of things. Right, OK. Don't worry about that.
OK. OK. We can try a different hormone treatment. Or...
to try some form of chemotherapy treatment. What, I lose my hair again? No, we can use a chemotherapy drug that doesn't make you lose your hair. I think number one priority is to get your pain controlled. Well, probably best to get that done in the hospice setting.
I know, it's just been away from climate. I know, but if you think in the longer term, having a week in the hospice now, you might then be functioning much better for your family. Because your pain is controlled. I know I've got to get my head around this.
I'm not going through a good phrase at the moment because I'm feeling that, no, I don't want this cancer, I'm not going to have this cancer. I want it to go away and everything will be all right, and I can't do that. The hospice does remind me the fact that, yeah... You have cancer?
Yeah. If I contacted the hospice, would you be OK? Yeah, I would much rather be at home.
but if it can get things sorted out quicker then... It would certainly be much quicker. I was struggling. I think you are struggling. I can see that.
I was struggling a bit in my eyes. Come on. She's still so... It could still be years. So...
Mike died four days ago. In just a week's time he'll be used in the anatomy students dissection class. We don't tend to concentrate on the donor as a person that has lived in the past because we would find that upsetting the staff. To prepare him for dissection, Mike must first be washed and embalmed.
I will remember Michael, actually, as my friend. There's always things that you should have said or didn't say or maybe you didn't say enough but I don't think that I have any unfinished business with Michael. I think that that was the good thing about our relationship.
was that we were pretty honest with each other. The more you talk to people about body donation, the more you understand that it is a really great gesture. I'm certainly very proud of his gesture.
I think it's an example to us as a family. It's certainly an example to me. What we do here is we preserve the body for possibly for years, for up to three years.
Before that three years they will then go for cremation or burial. So we actually need them to last with us that long. So our environment process will allow us to keep them for that long.
The actual make-up of the environment fluid is a small amount of formaldehyde. We also use methanol, phenol and then dilute it right down with water. So we just make a small incision there. The process that we use here is that we insert a cannula and we introduce the environment fluid and that mixes with the blood and fixes.
It's a lot like a blood transfusion really where the fluid will enter into the femoral artery but as the femoral vein is open it will allow the blood to come out as the fluid is being passed through and then using the string on the other side make a small incision Then tie that off just with a single knot. We'll use some clamps just as the string probably isn't quite strong enough just to hold them in there. What we want to do is to preserve everything that's inside the body so that when we do come to use our donor, the heart, the lungs, the liver are all preserved as they were.
After all the blood then comes out, some of the fluid will then release but we still keep pumping that fluid through to make sure that all the cells throughout the whole body are fixed. The process now is going really, really smoothly. We're just going to stay around for another few hours just to make sure the fluid's going in perfectly and then we'll carry on the process tomorrow.
By the end of tomorrow, I think he'll be perfectly embalmed. I think it's just hard to imagine that he's not really in Bangor, in his house, in his chair, looking out over the harbour there. I don't think I've yet got to that point where I really believe he's not there anymore.
I do feel that I've took one step nearer to death and the best way I can describe it is that I am now on a different road. to everybody else around me. I'm not going to be able to feel her. I'm never ever going to get a hug. And that's horrible.
So as this is your first life section, if anybody is feeling ill during this, please let us know. It's actually quite common that people will faint. That's next Tuesday at 9 here on Channel 5. Next tonight, CSI, the last ever episode.