A 77-YEAR-OLD great-grandfather has become Britain's oldest live organ donor.

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, from Rawtenstall.

He struggled to persuade his son to let him risk the operation and loss of a kidney. But Mr Gibson senior, from Gerrards Cross, 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 to confirm that both are fighting fit with kidneys in full working order.

Mr Gibson senior, who worked in the plant and transport division of Wimpey construction before retiring after 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 - he completely dismissed it at first but I suppose he thought if anything had gone wrong with me he would have felt bad. Plus, I'm 78 on Boxing Day and he probably just thought I was a bit past it."

Mr Gibson junior, who buys, renovates and resells property in his home town, 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 '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 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 Bob Johnson, 56, 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 on coming to see me -and 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 senior, and to Mr Johnson's surprise he passed with flying colours. Finally the four-hour operation went ahead in October. Mr Gibson senior 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.

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