The Organ Donor Register was set up in 1994. Currently, more than 11m people have registered with the NHS scheme.

To mark the 10th anniversary, UK Transplant is aiming to get another million to register by October 2005.

Peter Leslie, from Stone, had the operation 39 years ago in 1965 and says things have come a long way since then.

He said: "In those days doctors said survival was quite good but I think they talked in terms of a few short years rather than a long time," he said.

Around 100,000 people in the UK have kidney disease, and the number is increasing, costing the NHS over £2 billion annually.

More than 7000 people die from kidney failure every year and kidney dialysis costs around £29,000 per year for one patient.