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Claire Davies and her mother Carole

Claire Davies will be more thankful than most on Mother's Day.

After all, her mum offered her the ultimate gift...a new kidney.

Her own dream of becoming a mum, however, had seemed hopeless.

But now, 10 years after her life-saving transplant, she is celebrating another miracle - she is pregnant.

The 37-year-old Wheatley Primary School teacher said: "It's incredible. After seven years of trying and IVF I had given up all hope of becoming a mum. Now all my dreams have come true."

Tomorrow, Mrs Davies will celebrate Mother's Day with all her family.

She said: "Mother's Day is a special day, but I thank my mum every day for what's she's done for me."

Mrs Davies was just a teenager when she learned her kidneys were failing.

She said: "They told me to go to my GP and it was then I learned I had a condition where my body was basically attacking my kidneys.

"I felt fine, but they said my kidneys would eventually fail and I would need to go on dialysis and eventually have a transplant operation. It was horrendous."

During her years at university, Mrs Davies's condition was closely monitored and controlled by her doctors.

But during her first job as a teacher, at Rose Hill First School, she started vomiting. She knew her kidneys were dying.

She said: "I started peritoneal dialysis. A catheter tube was put in my stomach and four times a day I would drain a bag of fluid into it.

"I did this for four years - every day, wherever I was."

Shortly after her diagnosis, Mrs Davies's younger sister, Lucy, and their mother, Carole Newman, 63, also from Wheatley, were tested as prospective kidney donors.

Mrs Newman was a good match and volunteered as a donor. But her daughter resisted.

She said: "I was deeply worried by the thought of a transplant because it was a major operation and I didn't want my mum to have to go through it.

"Even so, my mum continued to try and persuade me, and when my kidneys started to pack up she basically said: "Come on Claire - let's do it."

On April 19, 1998, mother and daughter entered Oxford's Churchill Hospital.

Surgeons removed one of Mrs Newman's healthy kidneys and transplanted it into her daughter.

Both women went on to make full recoveries.

But while Mrs Davies's life was transformed by her new kidney, she was to experience a new heartache.

She said: "My husband Mark and I started trying for a baby soon after we married in 2000, but nothing happened.

"When doctors told me that my kidney failure and the dialysis had probably caused lots of internal scarring which could be affecting my fertility, I was heartbroken. We had always dreamed of having lots of children."

The couple embarked on IVF treatment, but this also failed. But just before Christmas last year, the 'impossible' happened.

She said: "When the pregnancy test said positive I did not believe it. Our baby is due on August 8.

"Having a baby inside me has emphasised even more what my mum did for me 10 years ago."

There are 67 people currently waiting for an organ transplant in Oxfordshire.

6:30am Saturday 1st March 2008

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