Bob Perry does not know the name of the man who transformed his life, but he could have lived near him, shopped near him — and might even have attended the same school.

Mr Perry, 68, of Marston, Oxford, underwent a kidney transplant at The Churchill Hospital in June, 2006.

His donor was a 61-year-old Oxford man who died suddenly. And his organs also saved the lives of two other people.

The Oxford Mail is urging readers to sign the Organ Donor Register.

Mr Perry said: "The man whose kidney I received was just a few years younger than me. The doctors told me he died suddenly at home after suffering a brain aneurysm, and because he had signed the donor register his two kidneys and heart saved the lives of three people — mine included. That man could have been a grandfather like me.

“He could have lived close by and just been going about his daily life, he might even have gone to the same school as me.

“But by taking a few minutes to sign that register one day, he changed my life.”

Mr Perry, a former truck driver, suffered kidney failure after years of taking painkillers for arthritis, which he was diagnosed with at 34.

He said: “I was devastated because after years of having to live with the pain of the arthritis, I then had to go on kidney dialysis, which is very limiting.”

Mr Perry spent two evenings a week, for three-and-a-half years, hooked up to a dialysis machine.

He said: “Dialysis keeps you alive, but it controls everything you can do in life.

“I also joined the transplant waiting list and was told I could be waiting as little as a year – or forever – for a new kidney.

“I wasn't getting any younger and I knew a transplant might never come, but you can only hope.”

He added: “It is strange to think that a man living here in Oxford was the person who gave me a kidney.

“One day I will write a letter to my donor’s family to let them know just what he has done for me. Maybe they will write back and I will find out I actually knew the man whose kidney I am walking around with. Maybe I will never know.

“In the meantime, hopefully people reading this will also be persuaded to sign the register too.”

To sign up to be an organ donor, go to the website uktransplant.org.uk Have you had a transplant or are on the waiting list? Call Debbie Waite on 01865 425428 or email the address below.

dwaite@oxfordmail.co.uk