A LIFEBOAT crew made a dash to rescue a transplant patient on a sailing trip after doctors found a kidney donor.

Peter Briggs had been on the waiting list for a kidney transplant for two years when a donor was found early on Sunday.

But the 66-year-old was far out at sea on his son's yacht.

Calls from wife Jean, 64, alerted Mr Briggs and his son, also called Peter, to the emergency, but time was slipping away as the yacht made its slow return journey.

Mrs Briggs was waiting for the return on the pier at Sunderland harbour when she saw a RNLI lifeboat on exercise nearby.

She alerted the crew who raced to where her father and son were waiting on board the October Storm.

Mr Briggs junior, 44, said: "It would have taken us more than 30 minutes to get back to shore and that could have ruined dad's chances."

Coxswain Clive Fallon said: "We saw a woman on the harbour wall waving at us, obviously in some distress. When we got closer we recognised her because the Briggs family are well-known sailors in this area. She told us Peter was out at sea in a yacht, but was needed urgently for a kidney operation and we knew we had to do something."

The father-of-four, from Houghton-le-Spring, Wearside, was last night in Newcastle's Freeman Hospital, where a spokesman confirmed that his transplant went ahead yesterday. Doctors were monitoring his progress last night