Aisle be there...

By Gayle Evans

PROUD father David Mudd walked his daughter down the aisle just days after undergoing a rare double transplant operation.

It was a race against time for the Astley man who feared he would miss his eldest daughter's wedding because of a life-saving transplant.

But on Saturday David took his daughter, 23-year-old Paula, by the arm at St Paul's Peel Church at Little Hulton to give her away -- just 10 days after having a kidney and pancreas transplant.

He said: "It's the happiest day of my life. I'm just over the moon!"

The 50-year-old father-of-two had the surgery at the Royal Manchester Infirmary after an agonising seven months wait for a donor.

His speedy recovery amazed staff who let him out of hospital for the day for the special occasion.

State of panic

But David was thrown into a state of panic when staff from Hope Hospital rang him up to tell him they had found a donor.

He said: "I was very unsure about the transplant at first. I didn't want to miss my daughter's wedding. She'd been planning it for two years. But I had a chat her and she was brilliant. She said it was my future and I should make the most of the opportunity."

Surgeons and nursing staff impressed him with their efforts to ensure he was on his feet again ready for the wedding day.

He is just one of a dozen patients who have had the double transplant at the MRI this year. They suspended operations due to a lack of expert surgeons to carry out the operations. There is also a severe shortage of donated organs.

As an insulin-dependent diabetic David needed the transplant after being on kidney dialysis for four years.

The seven-hour double operation, which needs to be carried out by two surgeons, also cured his life-threatening diabetes as his new pancreas can now produce insulin which controls blood sugar in the body.

He said: "I'm feeling on top of the world!"