A KNOCK on the door in the middle of the night typically heralds bad news, but for this Westcliff resident it brought news of a life-saving kidney transplant.

And it was PC Alex Watt and PC Sam Hudson, from Southend Local Policing Team, who were asked to make the call and delivered the news to 52-year-old Paul Rudd.

The Echo initially spoke to Paul last month as he praised police for their life-saving visit.

At 3am on August 21, the officer duo were tasked with stopping at the Rudd’s house after the Royal London Hospital had been trying unsuccessfully to get in touch with Paul to tell him a kidney had become available for transplant.

Mr Rudd had been on the transplant list since November 2019, having started suffering kidney problems three years ago.

But the family originally thought the late night call was a hoax.

Wife Buschra Rudd, explained: “At first I was worried it was an elaborate hoax. Then I thought we haven’t done anything, we haven’t been anywhere because we had been isolating.

“But when they said it was about Paul and his kidney, I rushed down the stairs. I knew then it was legit because they’d told me something else no-one else could know.”

PC Alex Watt said: “We parked round the corner and knocked on the door. Mrs Rudd couldn’t see the car and, initially, she wouldn’t let us in and asked us to prove who we were.

“I said ‘it’s about Paul and his kidney’ so then she knew that it was safe to open the door.”

While Alex went upstairs to speak to Paul and explain what was happening – that he needed to pack a bag and get to the hospital within the next couple of hours - Sam and Buschra called a taxi.

And around five minutes after Alex and Sam had left, Paul was whisked off to hospital where he later had the transplant operation.

He said: “It’s been absolutely amazing. I started dialysis during lockdown when transplant operations were frozen.

“But the call came the second week after surgeries resumed. The operation was five hours and, when I came round, there were immediate signs the kidney was working. It is a life-changer.

“People are quick to criticise the police as they don’t see this side of things.”

Now Paul is on the road to recovery, the couple wanted to thank Alex and Sam for knocking on their door that fateful night and wrote to Essex Police, asking to meet them.

A grateful Mr Rudd, Buschra and daughter Isabella, four, have thanked them.

Paul said: “Had they not come round, I don’t know where I’d be today. They got me into a taxi and I got a life-saving operation. ”