A MAN has put his life on the line for his desperately ill son.

Jimmy Ford, 49, of Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, underwent an operation to give one of his kidneys to his only son, Anthony, 24.

However, Jimmy, who risked life-threatening blood clots and had to have 23 staples in his stomach, shrugged off suggestions he was a hero.

He said: "Anyone would have done what I did for their own flesh and blood."

Anthony, a delivery driver, led a normal life until 1999 when his kidneys began to fail without warning.

He had to give up playing football and attend hospital three times a week for dialysis treatment.

Unable to see their son suffer, BT engineer Jimmy and his wife Elizabeth, 49, offered to become donors, despite the risk to their own health.

Anthony said: "I will never forget what my dad has done for me, he has given me my life back. He says he isn't brave, but as far as I am concerned he is the most courageous person I have ever met."

Kim Russell, transplant coordinator at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, where the operation took place, said: "Our kidney patients are usually older people and may not have any living relatives or family in good health. Anthony was lucky."