Tonight on Sunday ` the power of hope and love. They felt like the perfect wedding shoes. We believe in this date so much this is a risk worth taking. Yes! They've beaten the odds before. They take you as close to death as possible. Now they need a miracle. It's obvious she's exceptional. And she has something to give. I think it would be an amazing gift to give someone. Then ` the dashcam revolution... It's a windscreen-wide view of the frightening behaviour that makes Russian roads the world's most dangerous. ...capturing lawlessness on the roads. Kia ora. I'm Miriama Kamo. Love conquers all, right? For Waikato couple Angela and Raymond Sunkel, it's certainly conquered a lot ` separation, loss, illness. They almost didn't make their wedding day in May this year. They have just love and hope. But they need a gift. And as Janet McIntyre reports, they have a surprising gift themselves they're willing to give. REFLECTIVE MUSIC It's an unconventional love story. You said, 'OK, I'm quids in, quids in,' and I remember getting the text and going, 'Yes!' A wedding that nearly didn't happen. No, it's, like, 'No, we can do it. We can do this. I'll go in, I'll have my chemo 'and then we'll get married. We can do it.' It'll mean she's got no immune system on her wedding day. Yep, that's fine. We believe in this date so much this is a risk worth taking. Just three days to go ` a special delivery to Waikato Hospital. Love the shoes! They felt like the perfect wedding shoes. Patients and nurses were just popping out of their rooms and watching her, and just looking, and they were so excited. The nurses were apparently saying she gets married on Saturday, 'No, this Saturday?' 'Yep, she's getting married this Saturday, and she's attached to chemotherapy.' When they first got together eight years ago, they had no idea of the highs and lows ahead. Raymond Sunkel was a detective with Waikato Police. Pretty selfish. I was a selfish person, yep. 'Everything's about me.' And Angela was a trained naturopath with a squeaky clean lifestyle. I was trying to live the cleanest possible lifestyle I could so I'd focus on the foods that I was eating, things that I was drinking, making sure I was getting plenty of exercise. I wouldn't use a microwave. She would make lunches for me, and she'd make up hummus and carrot sticks and celery sticks, which I had to take to work for weeks and weeks and bear the brunt of my colleagues. You enjoyed it. Angela eventually called it quits. I just wanted to get close to him and love him, and he made that really difficult. Ange was the first girl to ever properly break my heart. I was heartbroken` I was proper heartbroken at the end of our relationship. Yeah, we both were. And then when you ended it, yeah, I was devastated, devastated. They didn't realise then it was not forever over, but they each found new love, each got engaged. Angela miscarried in 2010 aged 25. she found out was seriously ill, diagnosed with myelomonocytic leukaemia, rare in someone so young. What was it to get that news, given you'd been so health conscious; you'd really looked after yourself? Yeah, it was` it was really hard for me to deal with. I had` I spent a lot of time getting myself into the right headspace to be able to accept that I was going to have to have lots of drugs and, you know, chemotherapy. Which means poison? Which means poison? Yeah. Which means poison? Yeah. How did you feel about doing that? I struggled with it. Angela was told it was not genetic; she had somehow acquired it. Do you have any belief in yourself? Any thought about what has caused this? I lost my brother 10 years ago, and I wondered` I wondered if it had something to do with that, yeah. The stress of it? > The stress of it? > Yeah. How did you take it at the time? > Yeah, it was really hard. I was only 20m and he committed suicide, and we were quite close, yeah. I wondered if it was because of that, like, through emotions all tied up with that. After chemotherapy, Angela endured a stem-cell transplant. All her bone marrow was killed and replaced with a donor's healthy marrow. They take you as close to death as possible and then build you back up. Yeah, it's` it's a pretty hard thing to go through. She survived. Her engagement did not. But well again, alone, Angela travelled to Europe, only to discover two years later her leukaemia was back. Her specialist's prognosis was bleak. He said that the cancer` that it had come back and it had mutated and it was now stronger and that my chances of surviving were less significant than when I was originally diagnosed. And what did that mean, less significant? Um... Well, it wasn't good. A second bone-marrow transplant for Angela was scheduled, but three days out her doctor called it off, saying it wouldn't work. He just, you know, said that's it. What else did he say apart from 'that's it'? That I had less than 12 months. Was there anything at all he could offer you to help? We never had that conversation. Um, I was pretty keen to get off the phone to him, to be honest, you know? I'd just been told that I had less than 12 months to live, and that was a lot to process. Angela almost gave up. She prepared herself to die. She even contacted a videographer. I said, 'Hey, this might sound a bit weird, but I have cancer 'and I want a nice video to play at my funeral. Would you do one for me?' But the videographer, Chris Lane, said no. I wasn't` Yeah, I wasn't real comfortable about making something for a funeral. Um, it just seemed a bit morbid, and so I suggested that we maybe look at making a bit of a survival story. I really liked that, and it changed my whole mind-set, I think; made me feel there was hope again. And something else happened. Out of the blue, Angela's former love Raymond re-entered her life, and the man taking these pictures saw something in her change. Each time I caught up with her to film, you could see her growing in strength. I'm not sure if she even realises the extent of it, but, um, he's been fantastic for her, yeah. Second time around, seven years later, Raymond and Angela are together again. What did you see in her that you were blind to the first time? Just the substance, just how intuitive she is, how intelligent, incredibly intelligent she is, and just how much depth there is to her. And, Angela, were you able to reach him in a way you couldn't first time? Yeah, it's been completely different. It's not like it's the same Raymond. It's completely different, yeah. Earlier this year, despite Angela's advancing cancer, they committed to spending their lives together... We professed that we probably had always loved each other. ...and to fight the odds of Angela's survival. I've always tried not to accept it. It just` It doesn't feel right. I don't want to believe it, and so I want to fight it. How is everyone? It's scones. Surprise! Not just for her but, unlikely as it sounds, for a chance of children. When Angela first became ill, engaged to another man, she underwent IVF. She has 13 embryos on ice. What's gonna happen with those? Well, ideally I'd like to use them myself with Raymond. Even though he's not the biological father? Even though he's not the biological father, he's agreed to raise them as his own. Yeah, and if things don't work out, I'll donate them. Why do you want to do that? I think it would be an amazing gift to give someone. And I would like to think that there was a little bit of myself out there. Angela's only chance of survival ` and it's a slim chance ` is a second stem-cell transplant, not available to her in NZ. We've found a specialist in America who works at the centre where they first developed stem cell transplants and they do second stem cell transplants all the time, and they have success. And he's willing to treat me. he believes it's worth a shot. What kind of shot? It's low. It would be below 20%, possibly below 10%. At Seattle's Cancer Care Alliance in the States, Dr Eli Estey is a specialist in acute leukaemia. It's valuable for people to have hope. It's very easy for us to say, 'Oh, it doesn't fit into the bigger picture.' But we're not her. She's exceptional. It's obvious that she's exceptional. Dr Estey gives Angela a small chance she could live many years; a greater chance she will not. I don't think we're pulling the wool over her eyes. And as long as she's willing to try, then I think that none of us personally, I don't think, can really say that you can't do this. Um, ah, and that's a very controversial position. But I think practically speaking, very very few people want to try. You know, the great majority of people would be persuaded to stop, to give up and go on palliative care. AUCTIONEER: $1500... (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Angela and Raymond are working to raise the $1.3 million they estimate they'll need to get to the States. Going... Sold! APPLAUSE That's a lot of money. Why should people give to you rather than others who perhaps more hope? I think our answer would be that we don't ask that they don't give to others. We just ask that they would to give Angela a chance. I find that actually chemo makes your skin really good. Isn't that bizarre? Isn't that bizarre? It's the new beauty secret. LAUGHTER She's young and has so much life ahead of her. And she's such an incredible person that she deserves a chance, or a fighting chance at least. The kind of fighting chance it took to make it to her wedding day. Raymond,... (LAUGHS) I'll be by your side in good times and in bad. Through sickness. APPLAUSE It's a chance` It's a chance of a cure. It's a chance to live. If I don't go, that's it. But if I go, there's a chance that I'll be cured. And miracles happen all the time. I'm not ready to give up. POIGNANT CHORD Raymond and Angela's family and friends have so far raised close to $230,000. They say it's in a trust fund and will be used only for Angela's treatment. If they don't get to the States, it will be given to the Leukaemia Foundation. You can find out more on our Facebook page ` Sunday TVNZ. Well, after the break, some of the most dangerous roads in the world and the tiny piece of technology exposing the driving you have to see to believe. Thousands and thousands of accidents. It's a windscreen-wide view of the frightening behaviour that makes Russian roads the world's most dangerous. Hello again. They're among the most dangerous roads in the world, claiming around 30,000 lives every year; drivers taking risks you have to see to believe. And here's the thing ` now you can. Moscow is home to almost 12 million people. It's the centre of government, power and commerce. But it also has another claim to fame. It's the world capital of dashcams. One in every three cars is fitted with one, and the videos have become a YouTube phenomenon. Here's Denham Hitchcock, and just a warning. Some images may be confronting. The explosion of dashcam videos in the old Soviet Union is no accident. Well, actually, it is. TECHNO MUSIC Thousands and thousands of accidents. It's a windscreen-wide view of the frightening behaviour that makes Russian roads the world's most dangerous. Describe it for me` what it's like on Russian roads. It's something like fighting without truce. HORN BLARES CLAMOURING It's dangerous out there? It's dangerous out there? Uh, yeah. UPBEAT MUSIC They speed; they crash; they fight. A tiny piece of electronics is exposing the lawless life on Russian roads. LAUGHTER From the funny... to the frightening. The terrible drivers; the corrupt police. Yet, as you'll learn, slowly but surely, dashcams are making these treacherous roads safer. RUSSIAN MUSIC One thing I've noticed about Russian roads ` no one pays too much attention to the lanes; they're advisory only. Not a lot of indicators. No speed signs. Got to keep your wits about you. Oh, look! Look! He passed. He can't stay in line. And we will try to follow him. Mikhail Podorozhansky runs Autoreview, Russia's top-selling car magazine. Sorry, guys. Now we'll also drive more aggressively just, you know, to follow him. Behind the wheel of a Tesla, a $120,000 electric car fitted with a $100 dashcam, we dash off in pursuit of an aggressive Moscow motorist. He doesn't care absolutely about lines... Any rules. Any rules. Any rules. Just an example. Just an example. That's an example. One crazy driver. They feel that engine power means also their own power. 'Look who is the owner of this life in the city.' # Aye, aye, aye, aye. UPBEAT MUSIC Russia's dashcam videos have flooded the internet. More than 200,000 clips on YouTube and more still on dozens of Russian websites. And all this would have been unthinkable back in the USSR. Back then during communism, few people outside of the elite had cars. But once the Cold War ended, owning a hot car became the coolest thing. And with hardly any history of road safety, it quickly got out of hand. In the '90s, after the market was open, and somebody could afford more powerful car. 'Oh, I have some, I don't know, Jeep Cherokee with 300 horsepower. I can push. (SCREAMS) 'I have really powerful car. Look what I can do.' And it was crazy. ENGINE REVS In Russia, anyone with enough money or influence can get a flashing blue light and use it to speed and cut through traffic. Watch the Mercedes in front with the blue light. It's being driven by a member of Russia's secret police. He cuts left and hits the silver four-wheel drive, which also has a dashcam. Normally this man is above the law. Usually it happens like this, that the ordinary people are guilty in any accident with the car of Special Services. The initial accident report blamed Anna Akhmetshina. But police didn't count on her dashcam video and were forced to drop the charges. In some cases, the only way to prove that you are not responsible. TYRES SCREECH Right, after the break ` another disturbing scam drivers have to look out for. And could dashcams be making the roads safer? TYRES SQUEAL RUPERT HOLMES' 'ESCAPE' LAUGHS: Oh my God! Are dashcams making Russian roads safer? Welcome back. So, dashcams are being used to stop police officers and corrupt officials ripping off honest drivers. But as you are about to see, there is another scam Russian drivers have to look out for. UPBEAT MUSIC A common Russian scam is to extort money by faking an injury after first staging an accident, often by throwing themselves at oncoming cars. They know what to do. They analyse speeds, how fast you'll brake. 'OK, it is safe.' Doof! And then take your money. And then take your money. And take your money. (CHUCKLES) Road rage is familiar to all of us, but in Russia, it's an art form. When the red mist hits, the reds sure like a blue. Among the most surprising accident footage are the close calls, the near misses, and miraculous escapes that make your heart skip a beat. Many of those accidents happen right here, the one place on Russian roads where a pedestrian should be safe. RUPERT HOLMES' 'ESCAPE' TYRES SCREECH LAUGHS: Oh my God! It misses him by centimetres, but he's a local and is hardly fazed. He casually goes back for the tyre. To the rest of the world, Russia's dashcam videos are a form of instant entertainment. But the unexpected result for Russians is far more profound. Roads are becoming safer, drivers more considerate and police less corrupt. Now I see that everything change. People become more polite, and policemen become very polite. And now they have also these cameras on windows. So everyone is being recorded? So everyone is being recorded? Everyone, yes. Are dashcams making Russian roads safer? Little by little, yes. Little by little, yes. TYRES SCREECH All right, that's our show for tonight. Do join us on Facebook and Twitter ` Sunday TVNZ.