FATHER-of-the-bride David Mudd walked his daughter down the aisle -- just 10 days after undergoing a double transplant operation.

It was a race against time for the proud dad who feared he would miss his eldest daughter's wedding because of the life-saving transplant.

But on Saturday, Mr Mudd took his daughter, 23-year-old Paula, by the arm at St Paul's Peel Church, Little Hulton, to give her away within days of undergoing a kidney and pancreas transplant.

And on arriving at the church he proudly declared: "It's the happiest day of my life. I'm just over the moon!"

The 50-year-old father-of-two had the surgery at Manchester Royal Infirmary after waiting seven months for a donor.

His speedy recovery amazed staff who let him out of hospital for the day for the occasion. Days earlier Mr Mudd had been thrown into panic when staff from Hope Hospital informed him they had found a donor.

Mr Mudd, who lives in Astley, near Leigh, said: "I was very unsure about the transplant. I didn't want to miss my daughter's wedding. She'd been planning it for two years."

Mr Mudd is just one of a dozen patients who have had the double transplant at the MRI this year.

As an insulin-dependent diabetic, Mr Mudd needed the transplant after being on kidney dialysis for four years.

The seven-hour double operation, which needed to be carried out by two surgeons, also cured his life-threatening diabetes as his new pancreas can now produce insulin which controls blood sugar in the body.