A MOTHER from Oxford is recovering in hospital after donating a kidney to save her son.

Diana Berry, 52, a barmaid at Summertown’s Grove House Club, had the organ removed during a six-hour operation on Friday.

However, she could not donate it directly to her son Matt Trinder, 25, because their blood types were not compatible.

Instead, it went to a patient at Guy’s Hospital in London whose friend or relative in turn donated one to Matt.

Speaking from her hospital bed last night, Mrs Berry said: “I went into surgery on Friday at 8.45am and I wasn’t out until 3.30pm.

“Matt was waiting for the kidney to come up from London while I was having my operation.

“When I was coming out of the recovery room, he was going into theatre. We waved to one another so he knew I was okay. It was in agony when I woke up, but I feel better this morning and I’m up and about.”

Mr Trinder, who grew up in Abingdon, was not well enough to be interviewed yesterday, but his mother said he was making a good recovery after his operation.

She said: “Matt’s fine — his new kidney started to work straight away. The couple in London are both doing fine and we are both doing fine.”

Until Friday, Mr Trinder spent up to 15 hours a week on dialysis because he suffers from a disease called IgA Nephropathy, a kidney disorder that occurs when IgA — a protein that helps the body fight infections — settles in the kidneys. It is possible the disease will destroy his new kidney later in life, but he will no longer need dialysis in the foreseeable future.

Mrs Berry said she expected to be back at work in a couple of months, but Matt’s recovery would take a bit longer because he had open surgery as opposed to keyhole surgery.

The mother and son joined the Paired Exchange Programme last year.

The scheme, which only became legal two years ago following a change in the law, works by processing the details of everyone on the register every three months — January, April, July and October — to match pairs up.

It increases the ability of potential kidney transplant recipients to receive kidney donations from living donors if they have a willing, designated donor whose blood type is incompatible to their own.

In an exchange, a kidney from such a donor is matched and transplanted into the recipient of a second donor-patient pair, and vice versa.

The pairs never meet.

To join the NHS Organ Donor Register call 0845 6060400.