A Bexleyheath mum has become the 501st kidney donor in the UK.

Valerie Noble joined the growing number of people on the “living organ donation” list after the surgery became legal in 2006.

The 57-year-old interior decorator and mother-of-two felt compelled to give her kidney after she watched a documentary about organ donors.

She said: "It was so sad to watch.

“I just thought I could help someone.

"I thought 'I have lived my life, I still have two functioning kidneys, and I could give one away'.

“The team at the Royal London looked after me so well and my good health was paramount to them."

Valerie donated to a man she has never met and the transplant was a success.

She added: "I just hope it gives the recipient a new lease of life.

“In the hospital were three young women, one was very ill and waiting for a pancreas and kidney transplant, and the others had kidney infections.

“It was so sad it made me even more determined to go ahead."

Data from NHS Blood and Transplant shows 509 people have given their kidneys to a stranger over the last decade.

Giving kidneys away to strangers now makes up 8 per cent of all living kidney donations, with other live donations coming from family and close friends.

However the majority of kidney donations still come from deceased donors.

Despite the figures, 5,338 people remain on the transplant list waiting for a new kidney or a combined kidney and pancreas transplant.

Katie Ledger, 29, who lives in Gloucester, received a kidney from a stranger in 2014.

She had kept her illness a secret before revealing it in a Facebook post.

She said: "I never told anyone apart from my immediate family about my dialysis or that I had end-stage renal failure.

"I thank my donor every day for my gift of life.

“It's my goal to not waste the gift of life I was given."

Data shows how 83 altruistic kidney donations took place during 2015/16, down on the 107 in 2014/15.

In 2015/2016, 1,035 living kidney donor transplants were performed in the UK.