TRANSPLANT patient Allison Warren is looking forward to a bright future - thanks to her mum.

Nurse Allison faced a six-month wait for a donor after she suffered kidney failure at the age of 27. But her mum Shirley Alexander stepped in to give one of hers.

Now the pair are recovering after going through the five-hour transplant operation together.

Allison, who lives with husband David in Southwold, Bicester, told the Oxford Mail: "It is the sort of favour I never expected to have to ask my mum. She was fantastic."

A theatre nurse at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Oxford, Allison was diagnosed with kidney failure two years ago and told she would need a transplant within ten years.

In October, her condition worsened and she began kidney dialysis.

Shirley, 49, of Brampton Road, Barton, had no hesitation in offering one of her kidneys to save her daughter's life.

Shirley, who also has two younger daughters, said: "She phoned up all upset, saying she had to have a transplant. I said, 'Don't worry, you can have one of mine'."

After months of tests to ensure mum and daughter were compatible, the operation went ahead at the Churchill Hospital last month under surgeon Prof Sir Peter Morris.

Allison later needed a second op after her body seemed to be rejecting the kidney, but she is now doing well.

Shirley, herself a nurse at the John Radcliffe Hospital, said: "They told me there was a one in 3,000 chance that I would die, but I was more worried about whether the kidney would be compatible.

"The body can cope perfectly well with one kidney.

"I have been a bit sore but I am fine."

Allison, who hopes to be back at work by the summer, added: "We have always been close but I think this has made us even closer."

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