Transplant patient Suzi Macfarlane will celebrate the first anniversary of her husband-wife kidney swap by jumping out of an aeroplane – and she wants supporters to join her.

The 43-year-old hospital worker from Cowley, Oxford, received a life-saving kidney transplant from her husband John, 47, in May last year.

A year on, she plans to raise cash for the Oxford Transplant Foundation by jumping from a plane 10,000 feet above Weston-on-the-Green, near Bicester.

Eight friends and family members have already signed up to join her, but she wants even more volunteers to send her sponsorship target sky-high.

The grandmother-of-two said: “I cannot believe how fantastic I feel, just a year after undergoing the transplant.

“I am back at work full-time, I feel fit and healthy and on top of the world.

“Now I just want to raise as much cash as I can for the transplant unit.

“We are doing the jump on May 30. There are easier ways to raise money than jumping out of a plane, I know, and – if the truth be known – I’ll probably be really terrified when I get up there, but I also want to show how well I feel.

“This will be a an amazing challenge for me and the hospital says I should be perfectly safe doing it.

“My husband John has made a fabulous recovery after donating one of his kidneys to me – but there is no way he would jump out of a plane.

“He has helped me by asking his employer Property Care to donate £1,000 and have all our T-shirts printed.

“I have already raised another £1,000 in sponsorship, and two of my children, David, 26, and Kylie, 22, will be on the jumping team, as well as five or six others. But we would love more people to come and join us, because the more people we have, the less the jump costs and the more money we actually get to raise for the Oxford Transplant Unit.”

“At the moment we are on track to raise about £4,000, but with more people, we could raise even more.”

Mrs Macfarlane learned she had a kidney disease in 1990. Surgeons spent seven hours transplanting one of her husband’s healthy kidneys into her body, last May.

The couple defied 100-1 odds by being not only a suitable blood match, but also a suitable tissue match.

To offer sponsorship or to join the jump, call her on 07773 895699.

dwaite@oxfordmail.co.uk