A Bradford farmer is to give the ultimate gift and donate a kidney to offer a new lease of life to his desperately-ill niece.

Christopher Foster, 59, who runs a cattle and sheep farm and a bed and breakfast business in Thornton, hopes that by giving the organ to 38-year-old Jill Wright he will transform her life, which at the moment is blighted by up to nine hours of dialysis a night.

The mother-of-two from Surrey has suffered from kidney disease ever since picking up a virus six years ago.

But it was not until a Christmas card from his sister's daughter arrived last year that Mr Foster realised how serious the situation was.

"She had been put on the transplant list but had been told the average wait was eight years so she wasn't holding her breath," he said.

"I thought about it for a day or two and then I wrote back saying I had a spare one if it was any good. I have had a good life and have been healthy and if I can help the young ones out I will."

Last month Mr Foster went to St Helier Hospital in Carshalton for a battery of tests which proved he was a good match. The operation is now planned there for June.

He said he had met a consultant and others at the hospital who had already undergone the operation and was confident the procedure would not damage his own health.

"I am going on a biking holiday to Poland at the end of August so I will have to be fit by then," he said.

Jill, whose mother Sheila only has one kidney and whose father is too ill to undergo the operation, said the offer came out of the blue. "Words can't explain how I feel. It's the most amazing gift that anyone could give," she said.

"He has a farm and a business to run and he is quite prepared to drop everything and travel 250 miles to a place he has never been before and go to hospital. He is an amazing guy. I do get tired and run-down so a transplant will change my life."

A spokesman for UK Transplant said a shortage of donated organs meant that one in five kidney transplants were now from a living donor. In 2001 to 2002, 372 such operations were carried out in the UK.

Jill said: "It is becoming more common because of advances in medical science. Anti-rejection drugs now make it manageable. When you are getting a donation from a dead person the match has to be much closer but from a living donor, it does not have to be so close.

"I have now got everything crossed that the operation will go ahead.