Tim Stubbings has needed dialysis for four years

Staff rang Tim Stubbings, who had needed dialysis for four years, to say that a kidney was waiting for him.

His euphoria lasted until a second call just ten minutes later saying the operation was off.

The trust which runs the hospital has said sorry in a statement and promised a full investigation.

Mr Stubbings said one moment he was on "cloud nine" and the next, "You just can't explain what it is like."

A hospital statement said: "Preliminary inquiries indicate that on this occasion surgeons were already conducting a transplant operation which would take several hours.

"It is likely that the delay would mean that the kidney could not be used and therefore a decision was taken to allow the organ to be used elsewhere."

Four hundred patients die waiting for an organ transplant in the UK every year.