A generous Largs woman has showed amazing courage after donating her kidney to her sister, who has been ill for many years, to help live a more fulfilling life.

Gran Janis Wilson, 62, donated the kidney to her sister, Karen, who lives in Edinburgh, and the operation took place at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

It is a heartwarming tale as the kidney transplant is certainly ‘keeping it within the family’, and the big operation took place earlier last month.

The transplant lasted eight hours, four hours longer than normal due to the complexities involved, and has been considered to be successful.

Diabetic Karen has been ill for years, and had already had a kidney transplant over twenty years ago, and been on dialysis for the past three years.

Janis's proud son Darren Wilson, a chef who works offshore, said: “My mum has lived in Largs for 25 years and is very well known and loved in the town.

forward, and has gone through a year of various tests before the operation.

Janis, who was a hairdresser, and used to cut people’s hair in old folks homes in the town, underwent the surgeon’s knife in a bid to provide her sister with a better quality of life.

Sister Karen, 59, originally received a kidney from a man who died in a motorbike accident 25 years ago, and the kidney was believed to be one of the longest working after a transplant in Scotland until it stopped working around a year ago, necessitating the need to find a new donor.

And the good news is that Karen’s new kidney is working perfectly - and both are recovering after the operation and doing well.

In fact, the surgeon told the family afterwards that Janis’s kidney was one of the best that he had ever seen in terms of shape and health, and now offers Karen a great chance of living an improved quality of life for years to come.

Janis’s husband, Rick, was full of praise, and said: “It is not believed to be very common for a live donor to provide a kidney, and doctors can now carry out the operation using keyhole surgery.

Rick, who is a retired social worker, added: “For the transplant - Janis was in hospital for about five days, and the actual operation itself lasted eight and a half hours. It is usually meant to be only four. It was a really special thing for Janis to do this, and she has shown great courage, and it is very heartwarming. They went through a lot of tests, and the operaton had been postponed, and both are recovering well.

“Karen has been diabetic from a young age and the new kidney is now working perfectly."