Dancing against the odds

“When I walk into a donation centre, I’m not thinking about me. I’m thinking about Claudia,” says Marco.

Long before hospital visits and treatments became important in their lives, Marco and Claudia were known for something else: their dancing. Partners in life and on the floor, they moved in perfect sync, dazzling audiences with their routines and even winning competitions.

But in 2019, they suddenly lost their rhythm. Claudia was diagnosed with a chronic condition that left her too weak to keep up with the music. “I remember the day we got the news,” Marco recalls. “The sparkle in her eyes dimmed for a moment, but then she smiled at me and said: we’re going to keep dancing.”

And they did. Yet Marco wanted to do more than just hold her hand through the hardest moments. He wanted to act. And that’s when he turned to plasma donation.

The turning point

For more than a year, Claudia battled multiple bouts of pneumonia. Once strong and athletic, she was now frail and often in hospital. “It was the most difficult time of my life,” Marco says. “No one could explain why she kept getting so sick.”

Finally, additional tests revealed the cause: common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), a condition that leaves the body unable to fight infections. Painful as it was, the diagnosis brought clarity - and hope.

That hope came in the form of plasma-derived immunoglobulin therapy. “When I learned that plasma donations could keep her alive, it felt like coming up for air after drowning,” Marco says.

It was more than just a feeling of relief. It was a call to action, and in 2020 Marco donated plasma for the first time. “I was nervous - like I was going to the dentist,” he laughs. “But once I sat down, I knew it was the right thing to do. This would not be my only donation.”

Germany’s vital role

Marco soon learned that Claudia’s treatment required not just one or two donations, but hundreds each year. Plasma cannot be manufactured - it must come from healthy donors. And with demand constantly rising, every single donation matters.

Germany plays an extraordinary role. In recent years, Germany has collected nearly 3 million litres1 of source plasma per year for fractionation. Octapharma Plasma GmbH contributes substantially to this effort, operating with 21 donation centres across the country and collecting thousands of donations each week – plasma that will later be transformed into life-saving medicines.

“Plasma donors form the foundation of our work,” says Hendrik Köhler, General Manager of Octapharma Plasma GmbH. “Their continued commitment ensures a stable plasma supply and enables patients worldwide to receive the treatments they depend on.”

Without this steady flow of plasma, shortages of medicines are quickly felt - as Marco and Claudia painfully experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. “That period knocked us off our feet,” Marco says. “It reminded us just how important every single donation is.”

Turning purpose into action

As Marco has kept donating, his perspective has changed. “I look at people on the street now and wonder why more don’t donate. People just don’t realise how important it is.”

After two decades as a bus driver, Marco retrained in healthcare - sparked by a poster he saw in the very donation centre where he gave his first plasma donation. Encouraged by Claudia, he’d always been looking for a deeper purpose in his life. “I realised, almost like an inner voice, that this was going to be my new path,” he says.

Two years later, in February 2024, Marco began working at the Octapharma donation centre in Spandau, Berlin. Today, he welcomes donors and guides them through the same process that once gave him and Claudia hope. “To see someone giving their first plasma donation - it’s almost magical. Every donation is a special gift, and it fills me with joy every single time.”

A call from the heart

Through illness and uncertainty, Marco and Claudia have leaned on each other – and they still do today. And they are dancing again. Away from the spotlight, they treasure life’s simpler joys: coffee at their favourite café, quiet evenings together, and now, the laughter of Claudia’s grandchild. “If it weren’t for plasma donations, Claudia would have died in 2020 and never met her grandchild,” Marco says softly.

Marco knows many people hesitate to donate, but his message is clear: “We all need to realise that people die around the world because they cannot get help. So, if you are able to, please go and help. You’ll only feel a small scratch but that brief moment of discomfort for you gives someone else their life.”

For Marco, the meaning is simple: “Every drop is for her. Every drop of plasma I donate, every drop of immunoglobulin G (IgG) in Claudia’s vein, is a drop of life for both of us.”