A woman is to donate a kidney to her sick husband to transform his quality of life.

For more than three years, Mike Seymour, 53, of Stanway, has been waiting for a kidney transplant.

He and wife June were to be admitted to Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, yesterday to prepare them for their surgery, either today or on Wednesday.

Mr Seymour, of Villa Road, was diagnosed with polcystic kidney disease 3-and-a-half years ago, a genetic illness also suffered by his brother, uncle, and daughter Jacqueline, aged 30.

It quickly forced him to give up work as a bus driver with Arriva in Colchester.

He needs kidney dialysis three times a day, and attaches himself to the machine at his home for ten hours at night, and twice during the daytime.

Mrs Seymour, who works for the Benefits Agency in Colchester, said: "I had read a magazine article where a wife had done this, then I forgot about it. Then last April there was a meeting with the doctors at Ipswich and it came up in the course of conversation.

"Once they said it was something that could possibly happen then we said we would go for it."

In November Mrs Seymour, 55, was found to be a good match .

She said yesterday: "Just before Christmas we got a date, and it was today.

Mr Seymour said: "This is a big thing for both of us, especially for June, because I knew it was going to happen to me one day."

Devoted - June with Mike, who has dialysis three times a day.

Picture: STEVE BRADING

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