IN THE ultimate act of sisterly love an Ulverston woman is to donate one of her kidneys to give her sibling a chance at life again.

Business woman Carol Oliver, 41, decided it was time to step in after her sister spent months waiting on the organ donor register without a successful match.

Her remarkable gift signals a happy ending for Clare Brown, 32, of Hart Street, who launched The Westmor-land Gazette’s Gift of Life campaign last May with her plea for more people to sign the organ donor register.

“My sister’s decision is amazing news, I still can’t believe it’s happening,” said Clare.

“I am going to be able to get my life back again and just can’t wait.”

The pair will undergo the life-saving operation a month today at Manches-ter Royal Infirmary when surgeons will remove Carol’s left kidney and place it inside her sister.

But the decision hasn’t been taken lightly as when Clare first became ill neither Carol, nor their brother wanted to help.

“It’s true that in the beginning I didn’t want to do it,” said Carol.

“I was nervous about the surgery and scared about what it would mean for my health.

“As Clare became more ill and started dialysis, I read more about it on the internet and it didn’t seem that bad.

“One day I just thought if she died and I hadn’t helped her how could I live with myself?”

Carol’s dramatic change of heart will put an end to Clare’s agonising wait for a match from the register and the eight hours of painful dialysis she has to undergo a night, which has left her almost house-bound for ten months.

Carol said: “If everything goes well it’s just a week’s stay in hospital, which is nothing compared to what Clare gets out of it. She’s had a really rough time and I just keep thinking of the difference it will make to her life.”

Clare, a medical secretary at Ulver-ston Health Centre, received her shock diagnosis of renal failure in 2007, shortly after she got married.

“It came from nowhere, no-one in my family had ever suffered from kidney disease,” she said.

“When I first spoke to the Gazette about my situation I never could have imagined that things would have turn-ed out like this, I’m just so happy.”

She and her husband Wayne, 33, a salesman at Stollers in Ulverston, now plan to enjoy some of the things they’ve put on hold for the past three years and hope to buy a dog after her operation.

Clare’s news comes as NHS Blood and Transplant released new figures to show that live-donor transplants now make up one in three of all kidney transplants.

The Manchester Royal Infirmary last year carried out 74 live-donor kidney operations and are expected to carry out a further 100 this year.