AMMANFORD husband Chris Dark won’t have to worry about finding wife Melanie the perfect Christmas present this year — he’s already given her the gift of life.

Thanks to pioneering technology, the fit-as-a-fiddle 46-year-old was able to donate one of his kidneys to his seriously ill wife.

Chris runs the Ammanford and District Kidney Wales Committee with Melanie, also 46, who was diagnosed with kidney failure when she was just 17.

A successful kidney transplant in her 20s gave her a new life, but when it began to fail after 13 years she was placed back on the waiting list for more than a decade.

Last month, though, at University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, pioneering new techniques meant doctors at were able to “wash” her blood, enabling it to accept Chris’s kidney, which otherwise would not have been compatible.

Chris is now aiming to make more people aware of the new practicalities of donating kidneys.

“This wouldn’t have been possible without the washing technology,” he said.

“I’ve only been out of hospital a few days, and all I’m left with is a small scar and couple of aches and pains that will soon go. I don’t feel any different.

“It’s opened new doors in kidney donation and I think it’s important for people who have loved ones suffering kidney disease to know that.”

The couple, who live in Penygroes, are looking forward to a Christmas spent relaxing and recuperating.

Melanie said: “The transplant went really well and I feel like a new person. I have so much more energy now and I’m not tired all the time – it’s just fantastic.”

Her husband’s generous streak does not end with his own family.

Chris, who manages the Kidney Wales Football Club based in Ammanford, has also persuaded his players to bare all for a charity calendar to help raise life-saving funds to support the Kidney Wales Foundation’.

The calendar, which is on sale now for £5, features the players showing off their cheekier sides with anything from a daffodil in March to Easter eggs in April covering their modesty. “We had a great laugh doing the pictures for the calendar,” said Chris, who launched the team in 1989.

“Our aim is to raise more than £10,000 for Kidney Wales from the calendar to support centres such as the children’s kidney unit in Cardiff.”

Roy J Thomas, chairman of the Kidney Wales Foundation, said: “Chris, Melanie and the Kidney Wales football team have done so much over the years for the charity, for which we are always grateful.

“This latest effort with the charity calendar is one of their most imaginative and bravest yet.

“We are sure it will be a huge success, to the benefit of the many children and adults affected by kidney disease in Wales.”