Kidney op thanks to sister

Mrs Ball, 48, was devastated by a serious kidney infection 11 years ago and for the past two years has faced dialysis sessions four times a day.

Mrs Ball says the transplant - if successful - will let her get back to the life she enjoyed before.

Without it she could face years on a waiting list for donors and ever-increasing treatment as her condition gets worse.

Doctors at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where the operation will take place, have this week been talking the pair through the procedure.

Mrs Ball, a mother-of-three, said she had no option but to undergo the daunting procedure.

"It's frightening but I know it's going to be life-saving," she said. "I have had 11 years of problems since something leaked and developed into a kidney infection. It was getting worse and then they decided I needed dialysis.

"I haven't been able to work - no-one would take you on when you need a machine, with a totally clean room, four times a day."

Mrs Ball said she was fortunate as she had been provided with a machine to use at home. But she said it meant she could rarely go out and her previously busy life has been brought to a halt.

"I want to go back to being fit and healthy, and lead a normal life like I did before, and feel like everybody else."

Mrs Donaldson, of Mount Pleasant Drive, Aqueduct, who has a teenage son, has been told she will be in hospital for three days.

She will then have to take it easy for about a month as long as the operation goes to plan.

Mrs Donaldson said: "I'm feeling a little bit nervous as it gets closer but it has all been well explained to us to put our minds at rest.

"It's obviously something that's necessary - I just want Gill to have her life back."

Mrs Ball, of Britten Court, said: "I think she's brilliant - not many people would do that, but she has been positive from the word go that she would go ahead."

"As long as everything goes well she could be out in as little as 10 days from the transplant. We have been through lots of blood tests and they are quite confident it is a good match," she said.

"I know I have been very lucky to find a match."

By Dave West