Antonio and Lucia Faria were on holiday celebrating their first wedding anniversary almost five years' ago when he became very sick.

After numerous tests, his wife was finally told that her husband was suffering from kidney failure and he was put on medication.

The news came as quite a shock, even though Antonio's father had had polycystic kidney disease when he died - an hereditary condition whereby cysts grow on the organ.

And Antonio was aware that his uncle had also been affected by the condition when he was in his 70s.

Doctors had warned Antonio that one day he, too, could be affected and may need a kidney transplant. However, he never thought it would hit him so soon in his life. He was only 39 when it struck.

Antonio was told he had 23 percent kidney function so, with medication and a strict diet, he was able to carry on as normal, continuing with his job as a construction worker.

But then two years' later, Antonio's kidney function began to fail fast and he was becoming weaker and weaker.

Before long, he was on dialysis for four hours at a time, twice a week.

Antonio was evaluated and placed on a kidney transplant list, where began the waiting game. There he waited, and waited, for two years.

He said: "Dialysis was not too bad. I could continue to work - I would go for sessions after work. And I got to know quite a lot of people there."

However, he said he would never forget when his call for a transplant finally arrived in July of last year.

A man about his own age had died suddenly in New England and his family had offered his organs up for donation.

Lucia said: "It was a miracle the way it happened. Our phone was out of order at the time. We could phone out but we could not receive calls.

"We were sleeping and I actually heard the phone ring. I thought I must have been dreaming because the phone was not working.

"Then, it rang again. I lifted it up and it was a surgeon from the hospital in Boston saying a suitable kidney had been found. We couldn't believe it."

Kidney transplant coordinator in Bermuda Marianne Herbert tried to call the Farias soon after, at about 2 a.m. and was unable to get through. Their phone would not work.

However, when the surgeon called back, he got straight through no problem.

By 4 a.m. Ms Herbert had collected Antonio and taken him to the dialysis unit, so he could have a session before flying out at midday.

By that evening, Antonio was in surgery having a kidney transplant.

The 44-year-old from Smith's said: "When I woke up I was in a lot of pain, but you forget the pain after a while. I was just so glad to be able to have the operation. I left the hospital after just five days."

His wife said: "He was called a superstar in the hospital. There was no rejection and he seemed to get better very quickly. He was home just weeks after that.

Antonio said he went back to work in the September of last year. He was not doing stressful and or jobs, but at least he was there.

And since then, his life has turned around. It is normal again.

He added: "Now I can plan a vacation a lot better than I could before. We had to arrange dialysis when we went on holiday and it used to take us six months to get organised. I can eat certain foods again, drink whatever I like and I feel so much better.

"I really appreciate what this family did for me in making the decision to donate their loved one's organs. Without his kidney, I would still be going to dialysis two or maybe three times a week now.

"It has given me so much freedom.

"I urge people to think about how they can help somebody else's life by offering organs for donation."