An award-winning Bradford College student is facing an agonising wait for a double lung transplant operation that could save her life.

Brave Sharon Carter, 20, who was born with cystic fibrosis, was today setting off to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle where she hopes she will be put on a priority list for people waiting for donors.

Without the operation, Sharon's life expectancy is between 18 months and two years. She is desperate to undergo surgery, which, if successful, will prolong her life for an extra five to ten years.

"The transplant will be a new lease of life for me," said Sharon, who lives with her partner, Stephen Hughes, in Idle.

"Cystic fibrosis is terminal. If I didn't have this operation, my chances of survival would only be about two years and my condition would gradually deteriorate after 18 months.

"I'm trying to stay optimistic about finding a donor, but it could be weeks or even years. I'm just going to sit it out and hope for the best."

Mr Hughes said: "It is not easy to be in this situation, but she needs this operation and I just want her to get better."

Sharon was nominated Business Student of the Year at Bradford and Ilkley Community College last year, where she was studying for a Btec in business studies. But her deteriorating health meant she was in hospital on the day of the award ceremony.

Since leaving college last year, she has worked as an administrative assistant at the Benefits Agency in Pudsey, but failing health has forced her to give up work and she is now reliant on oxygen treatment, intravenous antibiotics and enzyme tablets, which she administers herself at home.

Her lack of appetite also leaves her dependent on a gastrostomy, a pipe which feeds her through her stomach while she sleeps at night.

"I get very breathless and can't walk as far as I used to be able to," said Sharon, who also suffers from extreme fatigue.

"At the moment I can't go out very much because it's too cold and I can't go to the pub with my friends because it's too smoky. I really want to get the transplant over with."

Sharon says she has taken her inspiration from people like Jo Hatton, Britain's longest-lived heart and lung transplant patient from Keighley, who died this summer at the age of 45.

"I have read her book and am a member of the Transplant Support Network in Keighley, which is run by her husband," she said.

Sharon, who has been in and out of hospital since she was a child, was selected to represent Martin House Hospice, near Boston Spa, when she was 12 on a trip to London to meet Princess Diana, where she helped the Princess to blow out the candles on her 30th birthday cake.

Neil Wrightson, who is the transplant coordinator at the Freeman Hospital, said Sharon would be assessed to see whether she could be placed on a donor waiting list.

Then the wait would begin. He added: "Unfortunately there are not enough organ donors to go around.''

Susan Crossley, of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, said the operation would hopefully prolong Sharon's life.

Anyone wanting to contact the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, or make a donation, should telephone Bradford 671882.

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