Normally, a donated kidney will last for between 10 and 15 years inside its new owner.

But for one Berrylands man, those numbers are long past.

Brian Marchant, 78, of Beresford Avenue, is one of the country's longest-surviving kidney recipients, having received his in 1972.

The operation changed his life. He said: "It was real freedom, because dialysis became a chore in those days, because it was 30 hours a week.

"I left home on the Monday morning to go to work. I would finish work at about 4pm and then went up to the hospital for dialysis, and to work in the morning, and home that night.

"You needed a day to recover.

"[Hospital staff] were incredibly supportive. That went right from the nurses up to the consultants. The consultants had more time for you in those days."

Mr Marchant, a civil servant for 40 years, praised his wife, Lillian, for her unswerving support during the time he spent at St Thomas' hospital in London, now Guy's and St Thomas'.

Mrs Marchant said: "It was very nice having him back - much easier because I had two small children at the time.

"If it wasn't for the help of my mum and particularly the neighbours we wouldn't have got through it.

"I never thought I would see him retire from work."

The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year.

Two years earlier a party to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Mr Marchant's transplant - in fact the second he had undergone - was held in the governor's suite at Guy's and St Thomas', attended by staff who had treated him at the time.