The Mayo Clinic in Phoenix is celebrating its 100th living donor transplant and this patient and donor have quite a story.

It’s taken years for Dr. Cherie Hayostek and her husband Rory to get to the hospital beds they sit in side by side.

“We’re soul mates, its just very hard,” said Cherie.

Rory, too weak to talk now, has been suffering from a debilitating liver disease for more than 15 years.

“He has a disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis… just kind of progressively getting worse and worse,” said Cherie.

Rory needed a new liver.

KNXV-TV (ABC) Ch. 15, by Jodie Heisner, 03-04-2010

Tags: Mayo Clinic Arizona, Transplant