A WOMAN is offering to swap one of her kidneys to save her husband's life.

Patricia Amor is making the sacrifice in a bid to help husband Terrance, who has been waiting three years for a kidney transplant.

The couple have signed up to a donation matching scheme, which will see Mrs Amor donate a kidney to someone who has someone whose kidney is a match for her husband.

And the couple are calling on more people to join the organ donor register to save more lives.

Former bricklayer Mr Amor, aged 65, saw his life change irreversibly when his kidneys failed following a bout of illness in 2003.

"My wife noticed it more than I did," he said.

"I had a bad chest infection and I went to hospital as my colour changed."

Mr Amor, of Ashgrove in Baglan, was then rushed into Morriston for dialysis after being told his kidneys had failed.

He said although his kidney function did return slightly after this, it was decided to put him on the organ transplant list sooner rather than later.

After his condition worsened Mr Amor had no option but to make trips to Morriston Hospital three times a week for dialysis.

"It is a bit of a bind as I am out of the house for about five and a half hours at a time," he said.

However, Mr Amor is in the process of learning how to do it for himself at home.

"If I do it every day, the clearer my blood gets and the better I feel," he said.

Mr Amor said his wife Patricia had hoped to help his plight, but isn't a match at the moment.

But instead she signed up for the paired donation matching scheme.

"She has had all the blood tests and everything," said Mr Amor.

He said that living with kidney failure has made a big difference to his life.

"We used to go on holidays and things like that but now everything has changed and I am tired all the time," he said.

He added that he hoped people would seriously consider signing up to be organ donors.

"People think 'you can't take my kidney' but it is possible to live with one, it is not a life threatening thing to have one kidney," said Mr Amor.

A spokesman for Donate Wales, which has launched a campaign for people to join the organ donor register, revealed that every 11 days a person in Wales dies waiting for an organ transplant.

Executive chairman of the Kidney Wales Foundation, Roy J Thomas, said: "The Donate Wales campaign was launched in 2008 and since then an extra 60,000 people have joined the register."

However, Mr Thomas said this was not enough.

To join call: 0300 123 23 23 or text SAVE to 84118. Alternatively log on to: www.donatewales.org