Strangers are meeting in Saskatoon this weekend, more than a year after a tragic event changed their lives forever.

One night, in February 2016, 23-year-old Leanne Germain, died of complications from taking the drug ecstasy. Doctors saved the Winnipeg woman鈥檚 heart, pancreas, liver and lungs.

Meanwhile, shortly after the death, a young mother living 800 kilometres away in Saskatchewan found out she would get a life-saving lung transplant. Saskatoon鈥檚 Jillian Langen, 28, had been suffering from cystic fibrosis which had destroyed her own lungs but Germain鈥檚 lungs would soon be hers.

Leanne鈥檚 twin sister, Laura Germain, didn鈥檛 initially know who had received Leanne鈥檚 lungs. But the women eventually connected through an anonymous letter facilitated by Manitoba Transplant and found out more about each other through news reports.

Langen says it was 鈥渘erve-wracking鈥� to open the first letter from Germain. 鈥淵ou have so many questions and there it is all laid out for you,鈥� she said.

Langen learned that Leanne had shared some of her interests, including makeup, jewellery and 鈥減retty things.鈥�

Germain learned that her sister鈥檚 lungs had been almost a perfect match for Langen, who described them as being 鈥渁s close as one could get without actually being a twin.鈥�

Germain also learned that her sister鈥檚 organ donation had not only saved a life, but saved a little boy from losing his mother. That would have pleased Leanne, according to Laura.

鈥淚 think she鈥檇 be happy to know that somehow in the terrible situation that we鈥檝e all been in, something good has happened,鈥� she said.

Before of the meeting, Germain said she was looking forward to hugging Langen.

鈥淎s crazy as this sounds,鈥� she said, 鈥淚 just want to see her breathe.鈥�

Linda Kyrsyk, the Germain twins鈥� mother, said she was also looking forward to meeting the stranger who received her daughter鈥檚 lungs.

Kyrsyk said it felt almost like they were about to meet 鈥渂rand new family.鈥�

The two families are expected to meet on Saturday for the first time.

With a report from CTV Winnipeg鈥檚 Sarah Plowman