Christmas gift of a new life.

For 18 months Mr. Domingos had been waiting for a new kidney, but on Christmas Eve that wait came to an end.

Doctors successfully transplanted a kidney donated by his wife, Maria, and yesterday both were recovering well in hospital.

"The operation went well and we both feel OK. My husband is OK,'' said Mrs.

Domingos, speaking from her bed at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, in Baltimore.

"I saw my husband on Christmas Day and we had a good Christmas Day. I don't know when we will be coming home,'' added the 27-year-old mother of twins.

Mr. Domingos, 29, works and lives at the Cambridge Beaches Hotel and yesterday staff were delighted that the operation had proved a success.

Resident manager Colm Hannon said: "It is wonderful news. Everyone is delighted that John and Maria are doing well. "We have been in touch all the time and asked a couple of staff members to keep track of what is happening.'' He added: "Of course we will be sending get well messages and gifts to both of them. It is wonderful.'' Mrs. Domingos came to Bermuda from her Azores home and had to undergo a series of tests before she was allowed to go ahead with the transplant at the US hospital.

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

In the past transplants have involved daughters to mothers, brothers to sisters and sisters to sisters, but never a wife to a husband.

The Christmas operation ended 18 months of dialysis treatment for Mr. Domingos -- who initially resisted his wife's offer of the transplant.

He was one of dozens of people on a waiting list for a transplant who are currently undergoing dialysis treatment at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital under Dr. Beresford M. Swan, the dialysis director.

Recently the hospital launched a campaign in conjunction with Johns Hopkins to persuade friends and non-blood relatives to donate a kidney as Bermuda's kidney failure rate is rapidly increasing.

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

The high incidence of kidney failure in Bermuda is due largely to hypertension and diabetes and the Island is thought to suffer from one of the worst diabetes rates in the western world.

It is expected that the -- whose children John and Ana Rita are now three -- will be released from hospital within four or five days.