THE FAMILY of brave little Max Price are breathing a huge sigh of relief after early signs suggested his long-awaited kidney transplant operation had been a success.

The three-year-old boy from Weymouth, who has been suffering with chronic renal failure for most of his young life, was rushed up to the Evelina Children’s Hospital in London on Wednesday as mum Michelle got the life-changing phone call to say a donor organ had been found.

The youngster went into the operating theatre at around 8pm and the transplant procedure took six hours.

Michelle, 34, said he was now in intensive care but the early indications suggested the transplant had gone well.

She said: “All they could tell us on the night of the operation was that there was a really good blood flow to the kidney, which is the best sign you can expect to see at that stage.

“Yesterday morning they did another blood test and all the indications showed quite good results.

“It’s such a relief, we were sitting there on Wednesday night and kept thinking something was going to go wrong or it’s not going to happen.

“We are still a bit shell shocked as it’s been a bit of a whirlwind the last couple of days but so far, so good.”

Michelle said yesterday that her boy was still showing the after affects of the sedation and pain relief medication but, considering what he had gone through, was as well as could be expected.

She also thanked everyone who had offered her and husband Shaun messages of support.

Michelle said: “It has been amazing the support we have had.”

Michelle’s dad Paul Allington, from Portland, said the whole family and all those who had been supporting them were delighted with the early positive feedback.

He said: “It went very well as far as I’m aware, he’s in intensive care now and when he first came out he was on a ventilator and he was sedated but they’ve since taken him off it.

“He’s now breathing for himself and when he woke up the first thing he asked for was a can of coke and said ‘can I stand up please’.

“The early signs are good.”

Well-wishers send support with Tweets HUNDREDS of well-wishers were sending messages through Twitter during the operation to wish Max a speedy recovery.

It came after Max’s sister Chloe, 14, started posting updates on her brother’s operation and progress on Twitter and has been asking people to show their support at #TeamMax.

Supporters were encouraging people around the world to sign up to the kidney transplant list.

A user called Beccagreeen wrote: ‘tonight shows how good a community we can be and all be so supportive.’

Our Gift of Life Appeal inspires donors

THE ECHO has been following the plight of baby Max since he was 11 months old.

His tale prompted the paper to launch its Gift of Life Appeal, which inspired more than 1,000 people to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor register Since then we have helped parents Shaun and Michelle in their efforts of caring for Max, by helping to publicise a number of fundraising events.

Raffles, bike rides, concerts, sky dives, have all been organised in his honour. You can also join the register online at www.organdonation.nhs.uk