YOUNG mother Jasmine Parker is celebrating being given "the best 18th birthday present ever" after undergoing a life-changing kidney transplant.

Miss Parker received the call she had been praying for in the early hours of Friday morning.

A kidney had become available.

She was rushed to the Churchill Hospital's transplant unit, in Oxford, by her mother Diane Wincott and doctors took 16 small bottles of her blood to see if the kidney was compatible.

They then faced a tense ten-hour wait to find out whether the donor kidney was suitable for implantation.

Miss Parker said: "When the call came in I was really sleepy and it didn't register straight away, but as we drove to the hospital I started to get really nervous about the surgery.

"I'd been waiting for this call for six months, but then we had to wait again to find out whether I could actually have the kidney or if we'd have to turn around and go home again - the wait seemed to take forever."

However, the kidney was suitable and at 5.45am on Saturday, surgeons began the six-and-a half-hour operation.

Speaking from her bed in the transplant centre following the op, Miss Parker said: "I feel better already and the doctors are really pleased with how it went and how I'm recovering.

"I'd prepared myself for maybe years of waiting for a new kidney so I'm over the moon that one became available so quickly.

"I can't really believe it's happened."

Doctors discovered Miss Parker's kidneys were failing after a routine pregnancy scan - and told her that without treatment she could die by the time she was 21.

She suffered renal failure when her son Leo was just over a year old.

And for the past six months, she has relied on her mum for the three-times-a-week, 56-mile round trip from their home in Banbury to the Churchill for dialysis.

Each three-hour session cleaned her blood and kept her alive. But it also meant long periods away from her son.

She said: "Leo hasn't been able to come and see me yet because he has a cold, but the doctors say I could be going home on Thursday and I'm really looking forward to seeing him, getting well and doing all the normal things mums do.

"One of the first things I want to do is to take him on holiday - that has been impossible up until now."

Mother Diane, 43, said: "The whole family is ecstatic about Jasmine's transplant. She has been through so much and we're all so grateful to the transplant team for what they have done in giving Jasmine her life back."

Miss Parker added: "I thought I'd have to spend a lot longer on the waiting list. In a few weeks time my mum was due to be tested as a live donor. I'm really glad she won't have to do that.

"I don't know where my new kidney came from yet. I don't know if I ever will. But I'm really grateful to whoever it was who decided to be an organ donor.

"I will be 18 in two weeks time and this is the best birthday present I could have ever wished for."