He (54) beat HIV and leukemia

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For a long time he was known simply as the “Düsseldorf patient”. Now it’s clear who was behind the medical sensation. Marc Franke is one of five patients worldwide who have fully recovered from HIV.

Not only that: she overcame her additional leukemia thanks to stem cell therapy. A woman saved his life with him. He and Marc Franke have now told his story on “Stern TV.”

“The whole world is collapsing”

Fifteen years ago, she felt unwell for weeks, finally being examined at the hospital and getting the devastating certainty that she was HIV-positive. “The whole world will collapse first,” says the 54-year-old.

“You don’t know how to deal with it because you didn’t deal with it that intensely before. Everything rains down on you like a waterfall.” Even then, the family doctor gave him hope. He said to him, “Mr. Franke, don’t take this so seriously. We’ll both see HIV cured.”

Not only the disease, but also the question of where he caught the virus kept him busy. At the time, he had kept his homosexuality a secret from his family and did not dare to talk to them about his illness.

The next blow of fate followed in 2010: Marc Franke suffered from pneumonia and was diagnosed with acute leukemia. “At first I thought: Ah! death penalty.”

Thanks to the gene defect, he survived both diseases

He had chemotherapy but it didn’t work. His only hope: stem cell donation. Lifeguard: Anja Prause. “It was really overwhelming,” she says of the moment she hears Franke is doing well.

What he didn’t know: Doctors had specifically looked for a gene mutation in stem cells to fight the HI virus as well. This is very rare – but Prause carried the mutation. And so he saved Franke’s life.

Franke: “It was very lucky to find a suitable donor and then someone with the genetic defect.”

A year after the stem cell donation, Franke and Prause communicate with each other for the first time and become friends. “After all this time, Anja feels like a second mother to me because I have her genes too.” (what is that)

Source : Blick