NINE months after first appearing in your Worcester News' looking for a donor - Sally-Anne Grainger and Wesley Joyce will undergo a kidney transplant on Friday.

The pair will travel to Queen Elizabeth Hospital tomorrow afternoon to prepare for the life-saving operation the following day with Mr Joyce set to go down to theatre at 8.30am.

The kidney will then be put on ice before Miss Grainger has her operation at around 10.30am.

Despite being strangers when Mr Joyce emailed the newspaper to offer his organ, the pair have struck up a close friendship.

Miss Grainger even refers to her donor as Wes Almighty after the Jim Carrey film Bruce Almighty in which an ordinary man becomes God.

The 34-year-old from Swallowfields, Warndon Villages, said: "I don't feel scared about the operation because I have Wes with me.

"They always prepare you for the worst but I have got to think positive and I will face any problems if they occur.

"I'm looking forward to doing the things people take for granted - seeing my daughter's prom and going horseriding again.

"And it is because of the generosity of Wes and that generosity is more than enough motivation."

The mother-of-two underwent a double lung transplant in 2009 but the toxic medication left her with renal failure.

Mr Joyce, of Mill Street, Diglis, said people had been amazed when he said what he was doing.

"People have been asking what I'm getting out of it but seeing Sally-Anne healthy is all I want out of it.

"They've been amazed, I was in my friend's shop this week and he was really intrigued about the operation and asked if the kidney would be cut down smaller to fit her body.

"I told him that's exactly why he owns a shop."

Mr Joyce, who vowed to turn his life around having been jailed for section 18 wounding in 2005, has been to visit Miss Grainger while she had dialysis to see how the transplant would change her life.

Brother-in-law Garrie Webster said he was not surprised he stepped forward.

"It's an amazing thing to do but I wasn't amazed he did it because that's just the type of person he is.

"He'll do anything for anyone."

Miss Grainger has urged others to sign the donor register so people did not have to resort to extreme measures as appearing in the newspaper.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust echoed her comments saying it highlighted the disparity in supply and demand leading to long waiting lists.

“The Trust is delighted Sally is due to have her kidney transplant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

“It is wonderful she is able to benefit from an altruistic donation and the generosity shown by Wesley.

“While advertising for a donor has resulted positively in this case, the Trust would strongly discourage the use of media or social media in soliciting donors.

“We hope the publicity surrounding Sally’s positive outcome will encourage more people to support transplantation by signing up to the Organ Donor Register, rather than encouraging ad hoc solicitation of anonymous donors through media channels that in the majority of cases fail to succeed.”

People can sign up at organdonation.nhs.uk/how_to_become_a_donor.