GRATEFUL dad Nick York believes he's one of the luckiest men alive after a rare transplant which gave him his life back.

Nick was just 19 when he received the devastating diagnosis that he was suffering from Type 1 diabetes.

Over the last four years his health deteriorated so badly that he could not walk his children to school alone in case he slipped into a diabetic coma.

But after a pancreas transplant in October he is now well enough to do a sponsored skydive with 15 friends and family.

"Before the operation I could not do anything," said Nick, 42, who is originally from Cinderford where his parents Yvonne and Colin still live. He now lives in Huntley.

"I lost my driving licence, could not work, I could not even walk anywhere.

"I was supposed to test my blood sugar 30 times day and I could not even go up to the school in case I had an attack.

"The transplant means I will be able to play with my kids, go on holiday and do all the ordinary things normal dads do."

Nick, who was a semi-professional motorbike rider, did not realise how serious his condition was when he was first diagnosed as a young man.

But his diabetes gradually got so bad he was having several hypoglycaemic attacks every day and wife Jo, 29, was frightened to leave him alone.

Doctors suggested that the safest option might be to put his name down for one of just 200 pancreas transplants performed in the UK every year.

Nine months of tests and assessments later he was finally accepted on the waiting list but warned he might not survive the five-hour operation.

He was expecting a wait of at least 18 months but four days later he was in the car park at Comet when he had a call telling him to be at the Churchill Hospital in Oxfordshire within four hours.

"I was in total shock," he said. "Obviously the worse case scenario goes through your mind so I was thinking 'should I go into school and see the kids? I might not get another chance'.

"In the end I decided to just pack my bags and go."

After an initial scare when he reacted to the anti-rejection drugs, Nick was discharged from hospital in 10 days after passing a Lucozade test.

He is counting his blessings because only one other person has received a pancreas so quickly after joining the waiting list.

But he said: "I don't want to give people the imp- ression it is a miracle cure suit- able for everybody, because it's not.

"It's an extremely risky procedure, very much a last resort."

All he knows about the donor is that he was a man the same age but he plans to write to the family and tell them their loved one did not die in vain.

He said: "It's the little things that make it worthwhile.

"I always wanted a transplant but I never thought it would happen and I cannot even begin to put into words what a difference it has made."

Nick is hoping doctors will give him the all clear to make the jump at South Cerney on June 4, and is looking for sponsors to log on to http://www.uk.co.uk">www.uk.co.uk.