We were so proud

Twenty one years to the week after she was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis, brave Sharon Carter, of Horton Bank Top, has lost her long battle for life.

She had been waiting nine-months for the transplant operation which could have saved her life.

Her mother Susan Carter said today: "She never gave in, she never complained, she was so strong and determined - she wanted that transplant so much. She was an inspiration to everyone. She was so lovely and strong until the end and we were so proud of her."

Courageous Sharon tried to live as normal a life as possible, holding down a job at the Benefits Agency in Pudsey until last autumn when she was forced to give up through ill health. Since then, she had been reliant on oxygen treatment, intravenous antibiotics and enzyme tablets, which she administered to herself at her home in Idle, where she lived with fianc Stephen Hughes. She was also dependent on a gastrostomy, a pipe which fed her through her stomach while she slept at night.

Sharon was put on a priority list at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle last November, but no compatible donor could be found. Since then she has been in and out of Seacroft Hospital, Leeds, where she eventually died last Wednesday - the same day that the funeral of her good friend on the ward, 19-year-old Shelly, took place.

Sharon leaves a brother, Roger, 23, dad, Robert, 52, and mum Susan, 54.

Today her fianc Stephen was too distraught to speak, but mum Susan paid tribute to her daughter, whom she said "shone and sparkled and always had a happy smile on her face".

"Towards the end, I don't know how she got out of bed in the morning, but she would never just lay there, she always got up and combed her hair. She managed to do what she wanted to do and she was determined to live as normal a life as possible.

"It was only in the last six weeks or so that she got a bit desperate and a bit scared and frightened. I remember her saying to me, 'mum, if I don't have a transplant in the next month, I'm never going to get it'.

Sharon died at Seacroft hospital surrounded by her family. Just weeks beforehand, she and other patients at the Cystic Fibrosis Unit had taken part in the production of a huge fabric collage, depicting a woman's life with Cystic Fibrosis. The collage went on display at York's Guild Hall and is now touring centres across the country, including St Margaret's Church, Thornbury.

Sharon is now lying in the Chapel of Rest at Martin House Hospice, Boston Spa, where she will remain until her funeral at St John's Church, Great Horton, on Friday.

"She looks so peaceful, like a little princess or flower fairy," added Mrs Carter.

When Sharon went on the emergency list for a double lung transplant, there was only a 40 per cent chance she would find a suitable donor.

"But the more people who carry a donor card the better," said Mrs Carter.

"It could mean such a lot to someone like Sharon. She always said she wanted to donate her own organs, but in the end she was too ill for that."

A former pupil at Horton Bank Top First school and Lister Lane special school, Sharon went on to study for a Btec in business studies at Bradford and Ilkley Community College, where in 1997, she was nominated business student of the year.

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

"The day Sharon died was very similar to the day Princess Diana died. It was as if the world had stopped," added Mrs Carter.

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

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.