A husband has received the priceless gift of a new kidney from his wife in the first operation of its kind in the north of England.

Doctors at St James's Hospital in Leeds used keyhole surgery to remove the organ from Sue Goodchild, 39, of Ryedale Close, Norton, in a four-hour operation.

The kidney was then given to her husband, Gordon, 41, who works as an engineer at Nestl Rowntree in York.

The operation, which surgeons stress is much less traumatic and painful for the donor than traditional methods, has been carried out previously in the UK, but never before in the north of England.

Gordon, who has been waiting five years for a kidney, said: "It really is the nicest gift that your wife could ever give you."

He added: "She has given me the gift of life, and nobody else can give a greater gift. This is the first day of our new life."

Gordon hoped the success of the procedure would encourage more people to come forward as donors.

To carry out the transplant by the keyhole method, consultant surgeons Giles Toogood and Adrian Joyce made three small incisions to insert their instruments, then a 4cm to 5cm incision in the donor's abdomen to actually remove the kidney.

Sue said: "It is such a tiny little hole. It's amazing."

She added it was not a difficult decision to go ahead with the operation, saying: "I wanted to do it for him."

Using traditional methods, surgeons would have to make a nine-inch incision through deep muscle.

Following such an operation, the donor would spend a week in hospital followed by a three to four-month recuperation period.

But with the keyhole method, the donor can be out of hospital in two to three days, and back to normal within four to six weeks.

Sue added she had been told that during the traditional operation donors might have a rib removed or broken so the kidney could be removed.

Although the best live donors for organ transplants are often blood relatives, husbands and wives can be sufficiently compatible to donate kidneys - such as York woman Angela Hardgrave, whose transplant gift to her husband Michael was reported in the Evening Press last year.

Updated: 11:06 Tuesday, January 23, 2001