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Paul Jenkinson isn’t a therapist. He doesn’t write in a notebook, charge by the hour or offer solutions. Instead, he sits in parks, coffee shops and community centers, with a sign that says: “You are not alone. I will listen.” Jenkinson, 70, is a retired social worker from Nova Scotia, and he is on what he calls a “listening tour” across Canada. (Page, 5/17)

Oklahoma cardiologist Dr. TJ Trad was fast asleep on his flight from Uganda last month when a member of his team woke him up to say someone needed a doctor. (Galgano, 5/18)

The Gathering Place, a nonprofit organization committed to supporting individuals and families impacted by cancer, has long been a source of hope for those they serve. Now it has launched a physical, made-to-move embodiment of HOPE. (Piorkowski, 5/13)

Surgeons in Southern California have performed the first human bladder transplant, introducing a new, potentially life-changing procedure for people with debilitating bladder conditions. The operation was performed earlier this month by a pair of surgeons from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California on a 41-year-old man who had lost much of his bladder capacity from treatments for a rare form of bladder cancer. (Baumgaertner Nunn, 5/18)

For years, Ambrealle Brown was forced to put her dreams of becoming a nurse on hold due to a life-threatening kidney disease that left her temporarily incapacitated. Amid inner doubts about whether she would ever return to living a normal life, Brown’s mother stepped in and offered to donate her kidney. Doctors performed Louisiana’s first robotic kidney transplant, giving Brown a renewed chance at life and Nija Butler the opportunity to see her daughter thrive. Nearly two years after the successful transplant, the Louisiana mother and daughter shared another journey. Donning white caps and gowns, they walked across the stage together in Baton Rouge and graduated from nursing school. (Cline and Smith, 5/9)

Tim Andrews knew that he needed dialysis to manage his end-stage kidney disease, but over months of treatment, he started to wonder whether it was worth it. He was exhausted and hopeless. He missed his grandkids. It kept him alive, but it didn’t feel like living. Desperate for another option, he found a surprising alternative: an organ from a pig. (Christensen, 5/14)

The story of transplants has always been one of altruism. After all, organs can be neither sold nor purchased. They can only be donated as a gift of life. It is a story that started in 1954, when Dr. Joseph Murray performed the world’s first successful organ transplant at Boston’s Peter Bent Brigham Hospital between identical twin brothers Ronald and Richard Herrick. (Gupta, 5/16)