The mother of a young Bradford girl who survived a rare illness thanks to a double lung transplant is urging the parents of other desperately-ill children not to give up hoping for their own miracle.

Mum-of-three Shazia Majid was told by doctors her youngest daughter, six-and-a-half-year-old Serish Nawaz, had only a 50/50 chance of survival when she was struck down by a rare lung disease.

However, thanks to the selflessness of the parents of a five-year-old boy who agreed to donate his organs and the skill of surgeons in Newcastle, Serish is now recovering at her home in Fletton Terrace, Undercliffe, and looking forward to going back to Wellington Primary School in Eccleshill in the new year.

“The transplant saved her life,” said Shazia, who wrote a letter of thanks to the parents of the young boy who donated his organs to save her child’s life.

“I said thank you and I told them ‘your son will always be around because of my daughter and it is something I will never forget and I really appreciate it’.

“To other parents of desperately-ill children I would say have faith and be strong and be there for your child. I never gave up hope and the doctors said Serish is like a miracle for them. It is amazing and we are just enjoying having her home.”

Serish’s problems began at the end of December last year when she began getting breathless.

Her GP could find no serious problems but when she collapsed walking home from school on December 18 her mother realised there was something desperately wrong.

She called an ambulance and Serish was admitted to Bradford Royal Infirmary where a battery of tests took place, including a lung biopsy.

Eventually she was diagnosed with a rare illness called interstitial lung disease. It affects the lung tissue and makes the child breathless and short of oxygen. There are different causes, some are inherited and some are acquired. In Serish’s case, doctors think it is an illness she inherited.

“They said she might not make it and the only option was a lung transplant,” said Shazia. “It was such a shock.”

While waiting for the lifesaving call to say donor organs had been found, Serish was allowed home and kept alive by a ventilator every night.

There was one false alarm when a call came in the middle of the night to say a donor had been found, but further tests found it was not suitable.

“That was heartbreaking,” said Shazia.

However, on September 28, a second telephone call came at 6am and this time Shazia and Serish were taken to Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital by ambulance.

At 1pm, Serish was prepared for theatre and there followed a six-hour operation to remove her own lungs and replace them with the donated lungs from a five-year-old boy who had died in a London hospital.

“It was exciting, but scary,” said Shazia. “This was the moment we had been waiting for but at the same time I was worried about what was going to happen.

“But I understood we were lucky – they had said she was not going to make it but here she was having a lung transplant. Her dad passed away five years ago and, even though he is not around, he is looking down from somewhere and he is near her.

“Serish told me herself when they put her to sleep and I had to leave her she saw her dad with her and he was near her and guiding her.”

The operation went very smoothly and only two days later Serish was sitting up in bed and recovering well. She was finally discharged from hospital on October 27.

“Now she is doing so well,” said Shazia. “Even though she will always be on medication she will live as normal a life as possible.

“We count ourselves lucky.”