Keith gets transplant from wife

There is nothing Staffordshire father Keith Woods enjoys more than a game of football with his sons - but a year ago, after four-and-a-half years waiting on a transplant list for a new kidney, it was something he could have only dreamed of.

Back then, he had begun to give up hope of ever leading a normal life. It was only when the diabetes sufferer had exhausted all other avenues that he realised his perfect match had been in front of him all along. In a last-ditch effort to find a kidney donor, his wife Dawn went for tests.

And despite doctors telling them that the chances were extremely rare, she proved to be a perfect match.

The pair went to Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital for the life-saving operation days before they celebrated their 19th wedding anniversary.

It was an anniversary present which Keith certainly wouldn't forget, and exactly a year later, he has revealed that life couldn't be better.

"It is just absolutely fantastic," said the 41-year-old, of Station Road, Codsall.

"It is wonderful just to be able to lead a normal life.

"There are so many things you just take for granted until they are taken away but life couldn't be better at the moment."

Before the operation in August last year, Keith had been forced to give up his job as a kitchen fitter and was tied to a punishing dialysis regime at Cannock Hospital.

But he said wife Dawn, 38, and sons Michael, 15, and Sam, 14, now struggled to keep up with him with his new lease of life.

"I play football with my sons, pool with my friends, I am a governor at Codsall High School and also act as a mentor there," he said.

"It is nice to just be able to go out and not worry about what you're eating or drinking.

"Everyone has difficulty keeping up with me now," he added.

Keith and Dawn were holding a fundraising bag pack alongside former Wolves player John Richards at Sainsbury's in Perton today from 10am to 6pm to pull in cash for the Kidney Patient Association at New Cross Hospital.

By Victoria Nash