Probably no gift anyone received for Christmas could top the gift Colleen Wolford gave her older sister Mary Beth Benson last summer.

On Aug. 10, doctors at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore transplanted one of Mrs. Wolford's kidneys into her sister.

Mrs. Benson suffers from polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disorder in which fluid-filled cysts grow in the kidneys. The cysts slowly replace the mass of the kidneys, reducing kidney function and leading to kidney failure, according to the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse Web site.

Mrs. Benson's and Mrs. Wolford's maternal grandmother died of the disease when she was 40, and their mother, Joan McCullough of Hermitage, also has the disease.

Mrs. McCullough and her sister both had kidney transplants in 1984 in Cleveland, but they received their kidneys from non-living donors.

When asked how she's felt since the transplant, Mrs. McCullough, the president of the local chapter of Transplant Recipients International Organization, replied, "Peachy keen."

Out of the four McCullough children, only Mrs. Benson has polycystic kidney disease.

Mrs. Benson's kidneys failed in March when she was almost 50, the age the disease hit most other members of the family who had it, said Mrs. McCullough. Mrs. Benson's kidneys failed after a chronic failing process throughout the years and fell below 20 percent functioning level.

Mrs. Benson, who lives in Pittsburgh, was on dialysis for five months until the transplant in Baltimore, where Mrs. Wolford lives. The sisters both graduated from Sharon High School.

"They were so good to us," Mrs. McCullough said of the staff at Johns Hopkins. "We shed a lot of tears that day, but they were tears of joy."

Doctors removed Mrs. Wolford's kidney through laparoscopic surgery, a less invasive procedure that uses a long, thin telescope-like instrument attached to a video camera, which projects images on a video monitor.

"It makes it a lot easier on the donor. The recovery time is a lot less," Mrs. Benson said. "It's still major surgery. She went home the next day."

After removing her sister's kidney, doctors then placed it in Mrs. Benson's body through an incision on her lower front right side.

Mrs. Benson went home the day after her sister, and both spent about four weeks recovering.

Transplant patients face the risk of rejection episodes and side effects from immuno-supressant drugs, but so far Mrs. Benson has not had any problems.

"Living relation donors have a better long-term prognosis than cadaver donors," Mrs. Benson said. "To be a donor, you only have to have the same blood type."

Doctors also do an antigen test on the kidneys to see if they will match. Out of a possible six, the sisters matched four.

Mrs. Benson now has three kidneys and Mrs. Wolford has one. Her remaining kidney picks up the load without any problems, she said.