Twenty-seven-year-old Maria Domingos has ended her husband's 18-month wait for a kidney -- by offering to be the donor.

And now the couple are preparing for a Christmas Eve operation at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore.

It will be the first time in Bermuda that someone has received a kidney from a donor who is not a blood relation.

Yesterday Mrs. Domingos' husband, John, who lives and works at Somerset's Cambridge Beaches cottage colony, praised his wife's courage.

"She is a very strong woman and I always knew she was brave,'' the 29-year-old father of twins told The Royal Gazette . "Giving a kidney is not like going to a shop. It's a big decision.'' He added with a laugh: "I hope it will be a good Christmas. I hope Santa will give me a nice present.'' Mr. Domingos said he had initially resisted his wife's offer to be a donor.

But there was nothing he could say or do to make her change her mind.

"I never wanted to ask her, even though I knew she had the same blood group as me.

"When she said at the beginning of this year that she was willing to be a donor I said `no'. I was worried that there could be risks involved for her.

"The doctors, however, have said there would be no risks and she insisted on being a donor so I decided to go ahead with it.

"She kept telling me we were young and had twins, and we should have the operation.'' Mr. Domingos said his wife -- who lives in the Azores and doesn't speak English -- was understandably a little apprehensive.

"We are both a little nervous, but the doctors say the chances of success are good.

"On the one hand, we are happy because I won't need to do dialysis any more, but at the same time there's a chance that my body will reject the kidney.

We're just hoping everything will be all right.'' Mr. Domingos said the cost of the transplant would be covered completely by insurance.

Dr. Beresford M. Swan, director of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital's dialysis unit, said Mr. Domingos' blood type was A positive -- one of the rarer groups.

"This will be the first unrelated donation of a kidney in Bermuda. We've had daughter to mother, brother to sister and sister to sister, but never wife to husband.'' Dr. Swan said he hoped Mr. Domingos could be discharged from Johns Hopkins after four or five days.

Asked about potential problems facing Mrs. Domingos, Dr. Swan replied: "There will be the usual risks of infection with any operation, but the risks are really minimal.'' He added: "Although we only spoke through an interpreter, she's a delightful person.

"It's obviously a difficult decision for her husband as well, but under the circumstances he is resigned that this is the best way to get him back to good health.'' Mr. Domingos -- whose children John and Ana Rita are now three -- has worked as a houseman at Cambridge Beaches for almost seven years.

He said he only found out in June last year he had a kidney problem.

Since then he has been on dialysis, joining a dozen others in Bermuda on a waiting list for transplants.

"Some people have been on the waiting list for five years,'' said Mr.

Domingos. "I've been on a year and a half, which is quite a short time by comparison.'' Mr. Domingos said dialysis patients led a rollercoaster life, with highs and lows.

"You are OK for some days, but sometimes you are dizzy and have headaches.

"Some days you feel really fine, but some days are really terrible and I can't go to work.'' Mr. Domingos said he and his wife would be going to Johns Hopkins on Tuesday for final tests.

"Our children will be in the Azores while we are in hospital for the operation. They will be with my parents and my wife's parents.'' Mr. Domingos said he had known his wife since they were schoolchildren in the Azores. They got married in their homeland when he was 23.

"We have a lot of love for each other and so I'm not surprised that she's willing to be a donor. If the roles were reversed, however, I'm not sure I would have her courage to be a donor.

"Obviously, you don't know how you would react until faced with such a situation.'' Dr. Swan said Mrs. Domingos had to undergo psychological tests to see if she was going ahead with the operation for the right reasons.

Kidney gift "She has offered on her own free will to go ahead with it. After she volunteered, she came to Bermuda from the Azores to have an initial blood test.

"The blood was sent abroad and it was found she was compatible.'' Dr. Swan said the success rate for transplants of kidneys from "live and unrelated'' donors were as good as those from people killed in accidents.

"Because the waiting list is so long the trend now is to use live unrelated people,'' he said. "Mrs. Domingos is in good shape and passed the psychological tests. We are now hoping that everything will turn up well for him and her.'' Dr. Swan said there was a possibility that the kidney may be removed from Mrs.

Domingos through a new procedure involving a laparoscope -- an instrument which only makes a small incision in the skin.

A laparoscope would leave much smaller scars, added Dr. Swan.

Dr. Swan went on to appeal to friends of dialysis patients to consider donating a kidney to help ease pressure on swamped hospital facilities.

Bermuda's kidney failure rate was growing at twice the expected average and the King Edward VII's dialysis unit had reached saturation point with 62 patients, he said.

Experts from Johns Hopkins say one solution is to persuade more friends and distant relatives to consider donating a kidney to one of the dialysis patients.

Dr. Swan said Bermuda had a high incidence of kidney failure, largely due to the "ravages of hypertension and diabetes''.

Bermuda is thought to suffer from one of the worst diabetes rates in the western world.