Whether or not it was anything to do with being the 100th double transplant patient to have the operation carried out at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, is up for debate, but certainly since the first call to his mobile phone last month while in the Orkney Islands, things could scarcely have gone any more smoothly.

After being placed on the waiting list just 60 hours beforehand, Stephen found himself winging his way by air ambulance to the hospital where a specialised team was already waiting. In fact, so speedy was his arrival that the specialists were still awaiting the arrival of the actual organs - donated by the family of a 25-year-old woman who had died some hours previously in a road traffic accident.

"It was amazing how quickly everything happened," said Stephen (43), while recouperating this week at his Kingsway Drive home. "I was told I could get a call anytime, but, I thought that would be at least a few months later - if I was lucky.

"The call came through while I was in the Orkneys visiting my girlfriend, and it was only a short time after that when the air ambulance landed on the tarmac, picked me up and brought me first to Aberdeen, from where I was transferred to Edinburgh.

"I didn't have time to think too much about what was happening; it was all a bit of a whirlwind and in many ways it still hasn't sunk in."

The nine-hour operation carried out by consultant surgeon Dr Murat Akyol has left Stephen with a new lease of life and as well as curing his diabetes, has freed him from daily dialysis needed to flush out toxins from his body after kidney failure reached a critical stage two years ago.

"The kidney problems started as a result of poor management of my diabetes, and things got progressively worse when kidney failure first started to set in six years ago," said Stephen, a former singer with the popular showband, The Indians. "I had had diabetes since I was aged 11, so I was used to the daily injections, but when the kidney problems started, I became really lethargic and everything became a chore. In the end, it got me down, even though I tried to live a normal life - I went to Turkey twice on holiday and the company which supplies dialysis fluid worldwide had it waiting in my hotel room when I arrived.

"However, despite the restrictions, I was lucky in that I didn't have endless trips to hospital for dialysis treatment and was was able to hook myself up to a home machine for seven to eight hours each night."

The operation which gave Stephen a healthy new, insulin-producing pancreas and fully-functioning kidney was carried out on April 10, after he was referred to the transplant unit in Edinburgh by his consultant, Dr John Hardy, from Daisy Hill Hospital, Newry.