A MUM battling kidney disease is overwhelmed after complete strangers have come forward to offer her the ultimate gift – the gift of life.

Sonia Alves is in urgent need of a new kidney and faces a daily battle for survival.

But following the mum-of-three’s desperate plea in the Daily Echo, a kind-hearted couple have offered their healthy organs.

They will now undergo a series of tests to check their suitability and met Sonia at a family fun day she hosted on Saturday to raise funds for Kidney Research UK.

Sonia said: “I feel totally overwhelmed and in shock. At a time when there is so much sadness in the news, this totally restores all faith in humanity. To think there are strangers who are willing to donate their organs is just unbelievable.”

The 37-year-old from Moordown was diagnosed with kidney disease focal segmental glomerulosclerosos (FSGS), which damages the kidney’s blood filter system when she was just 14.

However two years ago her condition began to deteriorate and she was told she had end stage renal failure and was put on dialysis because her kidneys were operating at just 12 per cent.

The mum to Jasmine, 14, Chloe, 11, and Lily, 10, told how her life is ‘on hold’ because she is confined to the house on dialysis four times a day, seven days a week and is often sick and tired.

However a couple was touched by Sonia’s story. In a letter to the Daily Echo they wrote: “My wife and I have read the sad story about poor Sonia are content to undergo the required tests to see if either of us may be suitable donors to help this poor lady’s return to a normal life. It struck us immediately that we might be able to help poor Sonia and thus her family by donating.

“We know it’s possible to live with just one kidney, and although we are older, we have checked online and see there are no age restrictions for a living donation.”

Altruistic kidney donation - as the practice of giving living donations to strangers is known - isn’t common, but numbers have grown dramatically. The practice became legal in 2006, and the following year six people donated a kidney in this way. But last year there were 107 such donations.

Sonia said: “I’m not sure what will happen and if the tests will be successful but the fact there are people who are willing to give that kind of gift to a total stranger is totally amazing.”

Go to organdonation.nhs.uk