A kidney patient has been given a new lease of life after enduring a 20-year wait for a perfect organ match.

Paul Jagger has relied on gruelling four-hour renal dialysis sessions three times a week since he was diagnosed with kidney failure at the age of 12.

But now the 32-year-old dad, pictured, is fighting fit in time for his twins' second birthday today after he underwent the transplant surgery on the day before his seventh wedding anniversary.

Police had to rouse Paul at his home in Withins Close, Little Horton, in the early hours of the morning after hospital staff were unable to reach him on the phone to inform him that a match had at last been found.

"I was in bed when the police knocked on my door," he said. "My wife Clare went to the door and she automatically knew a kidney had been found."

Paul waited 15 years for the successful operation at St James's Hospital in Leeds after a failed transplant when he was 17.

"Doctors told me I would probably never get one because my antibody count was so high," he said. "They had to find a more or less perfect match.

"I still feel a bit numb. I haven't had a drink yet because I have to take it easy for the first six months. I'm looking forward to playing football with the children and having a drink with my mates."

After the five-hour operation on August 22, Paul was discharged from hospital on Saturday and his first check-up has given him a clean bill of health.

"With being on the mend, it's nice knowing I don't have to go on dialysis again," said the dad-of-three.

Gary Carlisle, a dialysis unit charge nurse at St Luke's Hospital, Bradford, who has known Paul for 13 years, said: "It is brilliant news for Paul. We are all really pleased for him.

"He is a young guy with a young family and to be tied down by dialysis three times a week for four hours is very difficult. A lot of patients feel washed out at the end of it but he has tried not to let it take over his life."

UK Transplant spokesman Peter Sas said: "It is unusual to wait that long. There is a critical shortage of organs. Eleven people in the UK have waited more than 20 years for a transplant, some of whom have died waiting."

To find out more about organ donation call the organ donation hotline on 0845 6060400 or visit www.uktransplant.org.uk.