A 77-YEAR-OLD great grandfather has become Britain's oldest live organ donor - giving the gift of life to his Rossendale son.

Doug Gibson donated one of his kidneys to end the misery of two years on dialysis for his 51-year-old son, also called Doug.

But he fould it an uphill struggle to persuade Rawtenstall father-of-four Doug junior to let him risk the operation and loss of a kidney.

Mr Gibson senior, from Buckinghamshire, astounded doctors with his physical fitness and once they had ensured his kidney made the grade father and son went under the knife.

Today, two months later, they are returning to hospital for their first "MOT" to confirm the signs that both are fighting fit with kidneys in full working order.

Doug jnr, who buys and renovates property in his home town said: "I took am awful lot of persuading - but now thanks to dad, life's wonderful." Mr Gibson senior, who retired after suffering a heart attack in 1978 said he had no difficulty offering his son one of his kidneys in November last year.

"He's my son, it's as simple as that.

"It's the greatest thing to happen to a man, to get his kids out of trouble like this. After all, I only need one kidney.

"I had a struggle persuading him - plus I'm 78 on Boxing Day and he probably just thought I was a bit past it," he said.

Doug jnr, who is also a grandfather, was told in 1996 that his kidneys had failed.

He immediately began the gruelling five-hour, three sessions a week on a dialysis machine, which replicates the kidney's role of "cleaning" poisons from the blood. The regime also leads to huge weight loss, a very restricted diet, constant tiredness and thin bones which can easily break.

The father-of-four and grandfather-of-one said: "I felt a little bit Why me? What had I done wrong and how had it happened?

"But they explained there is no reason for kidney failure - my number was just drawn out of the hat."

Then just over 12 months ago his father approached him with his amazing offer.

"I told him to go away, or words to that effect.

"I told him everything I felt was against the idea but we are a very close family and he pleaded with me and said, I am 70 odd years old and one thing I want to do in life is give you a kidney'.

"So eventually I said, OK, let's do the tests' - but I still took an awful lot of convincing."

The surgeon who was set to perform the operation at the transplant unit of Manchester Royal Infirmary was even more sceptical.

"I didn't want to do it because we thought he was too old," said 56-year-old Bob Johnson, from Hale. We would not normally consider a donor much over 65, let alone 77."

According to the Bristol-based UK Transplant Authority the previous oldest live donation was from a 72-year-old kidney donor in Exeter in March 1992.

Mr Johnson continued: "The physicians at Mr Gibson junior's hospital in Preston wrote to me telling me what they had suggested and I wrote back - not saying forget it', but it was very close. Then the Gibsons insisted and insisted on coming to see me and, well, Mr Gibson senior is a very impressive man.

"He said he was not long for this world and wanted to do something for his son."

Exhaustive tests were carried out at a hospital in Oxford to check everything from blood group compatibility to traces of heart disease in Mr Gibson snr - and to Mr Johnson's surprise he passed with flying colours.

"He is in very good nick. For instance his arteries are remarkably well preserved - they are more like a 60-year-old's than a 77-year-old," he said.

Finally the four-hour operation went ahead in October. It went as smoothly as any of the 160 other kidney transplants Mr Johnson performs every year. Mr Gibson snr was out of hospital in five days and quickly back playing golf and going for walks with his dog.

His son was out in 10 days, although he had to return to hospital after a problem developed in a tube running between the new kidney and his bladder, which was quickly repaired.

Their surgeon is amazed at their progress and said he could not rule out even older donors in future.

"It's like the high jump - you wonder how people can keep jumping higher and where the limit is," said Mr Johnson.

"It's not the sort of stage we want to reach, it's always far better to use a younger person and the message from this case is the critical shortage of organs available for transplant from the living rather than cadavers."

Mr Gibson snr paid special tribute to the people who looked after him and his son.

"Everyone, from start to finish, from Preston to Oxford to Manchester to my own GP, were magnificent. I can't thank them enough," he said.

Mr Gibson jnr echoed those words, but his biggest tribute was for his dad.

"It sounds like a cliche but having given me life in the first place and then doing it again takes a lot of beating," he said.

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