From WENN.com

The star, famous for his role on now-defunct U.K. soap opera Brookside, was struck down with rare autoimmune disease Goodpasture's Syndrome in 2010 and has had regular kidney dialysis treatments ever since.

He checked into the Royal University hospital in Liverpool, England for a transplant last Tuesday (19Jun12) and has now announced the surgery was a success.

Earl tells the Liverpool Echo newspaper, ""They have done an amazing job and I'm very grateful for what they have done.

""I got a phone call from the hospital at 11.45pm on Monday last week and at 5am on the Tuesday they started operating on me.

""The operation lasted about five hours. It takes a while for the kidney to start working properly, but fingers crossed everything will be OK now.""