A WORCESTER factory worker is giving his wife a priceless early Christmas present - one of his own kidneys.

Trudie Osborne, aged 36, has suffered from kidney failure since the birth of her first child, Jamie, 10 years ago.

Her condition has gradually deteriorated and she has been on dialysis for the past year.

The mother-of-two could have been faced with an anxious wait for a suitable donor.

But her husband, 43-year-old Christopher, was determined to help if he could.

Following tests at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Mr Osborne, a security guard at Reality, was found to be a good match and was deemed suitable to donate a kidney.

He said he did not think twice about volunteering for the donation.

"I think anyone would do it - it's just one of those things," he said. "We're just lucky that we're a good match."

There was only a 20 per cent chance of the couple's blood groups matching. The alternative was to wait for a matching kidney to become available from a deceased donor.

"A kidney from a live donor tends to work much better and last a lot longer," said Mr Osborne.

The couple, who have been married for 14 years and also have an eight-year-old daughter, Gemma, were due to be admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital today. The operation will follow tomorrow.

Mrs Osborne, who also works at Reality as a warehouse operative, suffered a kidney infection in her teens, but the problem was not diagnosed until she gave birth to Jamie prematurely.

She is currently on Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD), a treatment that takes eight-and-a-half hours each night.

Mrs Osborne, of Wedderburn Road, Malvern, decided it was preferable to travelling to Birmingham several times a week for haemodialysis in hospital.

"Christopher always wanted to donate if he could," she said.

"I'm worried about the operation, but I think it's a great thing he's doing for me. He was adamant about doing it."