December 25, 2020 10:15 p.m.
There are two touching stories that collide here – on the one hand, the incredible gift that Samuel Koch received on Christmas Eve from the YouTuber duo “The Real Life Guys”, on the other hand the sad fate of one of the brothers.
Samuel Koch achieved notoriety with his tragic accident on “Wetten, dass …?” Ten years ago. Since then, the 33-year-old has been paralyzed. For this reason, the Mickenbecker brothers came up with something very special.
The twins have since built a reputation for building crazy forms of transportation. They make them out of old plastic tubs, for example, and they regularly share them with their fans with numerous videos on YouTube as “The Real Life Guys”.
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Joint discs and an e-bike motor
The YouTubers also built such a tub for Samuel Koch and presented it to him yesterday in front of the Berlin Memorial Church (video below). “We had the idea of building something like this for a long time. Our model for the legs is Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest, who made a kind of caterpillar run on the beach, ”Philipp and Johannes explained to the“ Bild ”newspaper.
However, since the brothers’ mobile tubs usually have integrated pedals or other pedal mechanisms, they had to come up with something else in the case of Samu, because he can no longer feel his legs due to the paraplegia. “We built the legs from a frame made of steel profiles that are connected to the edge of the bathtub with flexible disks. This creates a typical running movement. The bathtub is powered by the motor of two e-bikes / pedelecs. “
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Samuel has not yet driven with it
However, the tests had not yet been carried out, the brothers had decided in advance. But what does the former competitive athlete say about his special Christmas present? “Yes, you’re crazy! Why are you driving that away now? ”He jokes during the handover. “I haven’t run in shape this year. This is really the craziest gift I’ve ever received ”.
Philipp has terminal cancer
“The Real Life Guys” are celebrating huge successes online with their self-built, mobile equipment. But behind the curious ideas of the brothers lies a fateful, sad story – because Philipp Mickenberger has end-stage lymph gland cancer. In October, the doctors discovered that the 23-year-old had another tumor in his chest.
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Philipp also had the bad diagnosis filmed for the joint YouTube channel. The doctor notices in front of the camera that the swelling has increased. This can also be seen in the clip – the young man’s chest is bulging, bluish-red and scarred. “The bump has grown significantly. I can feel that too, because it also puts a lot of pressure on my chest, ”says Philipp in the video.
The little sister died two years ago
From a medical point of view, the YouTuber doesn’t have much time left. It is the third time that the cancer has returned, but he refuses another chemo. Philipp seems bitterly to have resigned himself to soon being dying.
The tragedy: the twins’ little sister died two years ago in an airplane at the age of only 18. So it will be difficult for Johannes Mickenbecker to lose another sibling.
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