LINDA Joel’s husband Gary has left her and she fears she has not only lost the man she loved — but the donor needed to save her life.

The diabetic mother-of-five from Abingdon needs a transplant and her husband of four years had promised her his kidney.

But the 46-year-old decorator left their Tower Close home three weeks ago.

Mrs Joel, 57, said: “I am unsure of the future now. He has put my life in dire straits. He has taken a lifeline away from me and now I have to find another one.

“He left knowing that I was relying on him. It would not have meant so much if he did not know how important it was for him to do this.”

The Herald reported in December 2009 how Mrs Joel’s children had come forward to donate the organ, but Mr Joel said he would offer his.

He said then: “I just said it’s my responsibility and I have to get on with it. All the kids are young with children.

“I was bowled over when they volunteered — they came up trumps. The doctors said Linda would be on a waiting list otherwise and we all knew there wouldn’t need to be a waiting list if we stepped up.”

Mrs Joel was due to have the operation last year, but was too ill and is now waiting to have a gastric bypass so she can lose enough weight to have the transplant.

The grandmother of 15, she has only one working kidney and visits hospitals up to twice a week.

Mr Joel was in the same blood group as his wife, which meant the chance his kidney would be compatible was 70 per cent.

She said: “He did all my medications and came to all my hospital appointments. Hardly anybody can believe what he has done. Everybody is so shocked. I am glad my kids are around me as I would never have come through this.”

The couple had been together for nine years after meeting in a pub in Maidenhead. They married on October 7, 2006, in St Michael and All Angels’ church in Abingdon.

Mrs Joel’s daughter, Hayley Smith, 34, of Tower Close, said: “Financially she will be fine, but emotionally she is a complete wreck.

“Obviously, she is devastated he has gone as he was her backbone, but her health was banking on him.

“Now we have to go through all the rigour of finding another match. And the chances are slim at the moment.”

Mrs Joel’s son, Simon Smith, 38, said: “He can’t have loved her as he said he did.”

Mr Joel was contacted for comment, but did not respond.

But Mrs Joel received a note from him last week.

In the letter, he wrote: “Linda, you and I have not been okay for a long time. I have felt the walls closing on me.

”I wish you and your family all the luck in the world, but I’m not coming back.”

Mrs Joel needs to have the gastric bypass and six months of dialysis before the donor process starts again. Then she is likely to have to go on a transplant waiting list.