This special one-off documentary gives viewers a dramatic behind-the-scenes look at organ transplantation in the United Kingdom. This remarkable work is carried out by a team of medical experts from the NHS who travel the country to retrieve donated organs and deliver them to where they are most needed. This must occur within a matter of hours in order to achieve the best results in surgery. The film reveals how one young lad’s generosity helped save several lives, and also follows the journey of a 59-year-old heart transplant patient.

At University Hospital in Coventry, 17-year-old Matthew has been seriously injured in a car accident. After fighting for his life for three days while his anxious family keep a vigil, he is pronounced brain-dead. Transplant co-ordinator Susan Richards sets the wheels in motion to fulfil Matthew’s request to be an organ donor. Time is of the essence because the teenager’s body is only being kept alive by machines – if his heart stops beating, none of his vital organs will be suitable for retrieval.

Susan faces the difficult task of consulting with Matthew’s grieving parents and getting their consent for the operation. “Do you, in the end, get to know how many people he’s helped?” asks his mother. She is reassured by Susan that this is indeed the case.

Two hours into the extraction procedure, surgeons are worried about the condition of Matthew’s heart and lungs. But things improve as doctors work late into the night. While one of Matthew’s lungs has become infected during his time in hospital, the other one is in a better state. His heart is also healthy, although for it to be useable it must reach its new owner within the next six hours.

It is the donor co-ordinator’s job to mobilise two organ-retrieval teams – one to collect Matthew’s heart and lungs, and the other his liver and kidneys. While both his lungs turn out to be unsuitable, his heart is successfully transplanted into a young woman. As the liver is able to regenerate itself, it is split in half and given to two young female recipients. The kidneys go to two older patients who, before their operations, had to endure daily courses of dialysis. Despite the lungs being rejected, they are still able to be used in valuable research.

Meanwhile, at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, a retrieval team prepares to make the journey to Northern Ireland via chartered plane. They are making the 600-mile round trip to bring back the organs of a donor in Belfast. One of the beneficiaries of these organs is to be 59-year-old Ron, who has just been shifted to the top of the urgent transplant list. Ron’s heart is enlarged and has a leaking valve. His condition has deteriorated rapidly over the ten months that he has been on the waiting list. If he does not have an operation, he will only live a maximum of six more months.

Papworth Hospital is renowned for its successful transplant surgeries, which make use of the most advanced technology available. Ron’s new heart will be transported back to Cambridge in an Organ Care System (OCS). This portable unit keeps the heart in a warm environment and artificially pumps blood through the organ so that it keeps beating.

As Ron awaits the surgeons’ return, he talks about his sudden summons to the hospital and the surreal quality of the situation: “It’s strange that somewhere there’s a heart that’s going to be beating away at the moment – and it’s going to be for me.”