The parents of a 21-year-old who died following a double lung transplant have told how she was planning a fresh start.

Jan and David Ireland said daughter Katherine, who appeared to have made a remarkable recovery, was excited about her future and had planned a holiday in Majorca with her boyfriend David Nicholls, 19, of Riddlesden, Keighley.

But elation turned to grief as her condition deteriorated when complications set in at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital.

Her family are now hoping vital organs, including her kidneys, may be used for other transplant patients.

Jan, a grandmother, of Meadowcroft, Cononley, near Skipton, said: "That's what she would have wanted. In accordance with her wishes and ours her organs will go for transplant. After all, someone did it for us.

"I can't believe it. It seems so cruel. The operation had gone so well and the doctors told us she had made an amazing recovery.

"We went up there on Saturday, February 5, and on the Monday she was brilliant, sitting up in bed laughing and talking and asking for a packet of salt and vinegar crisps.

"She was over the moon afterwards and talking about going abroad with her boyfriend and how wonderful it would be to live without an emergency bleeper.

"He brought her a three-foot high Winnie the Pooh bear and some in-line skates. He wasn't allowed in so she blew him a kiss through the window.

"But then on the Wednesday and Thursday she started being very, very, drowsy and went back into intensive care on Saturday and onto the ventilator.

"Even up to the time of her death on Wednesday this week, her lungs were fine. On Friday she had had a couple of seizures and a brain problem.

"She was heavily sedated from Friday until her death. They tried various antibiotics but nothing worked. They couldn't do anything for her. The light went out of her eyes and she couldn't fight any more."

Despite the couple's grief at their loss, they are determined to remember the good times they shared with Katherine.

Jan added: "She touched so many people's lives and lived life to the full. She had a wicked sense of humour and showed tremendous courage. She went through stuff that would have felled a grown man. She had to be the most loving, giving, generous and courageous person I have known.

"I think of her courage and loving nature. She was one on her own. Everybody loved her and the people in this village have been fantastic.

"We have had a wonderful daughter. They never thought she would live until she was 21. We had her for all those years and I want to celebrate her life."

Katherine's funeral will take place on Tuesday at St John's Church, Cononley, followed by her burial.

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