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Kim Hodge was only hours from death when her life was saved by a donor.

Now she is speaking from her hospital bed after undergoing a critical lung transplant to raise awareness and the need for organ donors.

The 48-year-old, from Pontardawe near Swansea , was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was around two years old and her condition has gradually deteriorated over the years.

In January she was taken to hospital with a chest infection and had to be attached to an oxygen machine for 16 hours a day.

Kim was told then that she only had 10 months to live unless she had a lung transplant and that even catching a cold could kill her.

Eleven months on and, after going downhill and spending three days at the top of the transplant list, Kim is recovering at the Harefield Transplant Hospital in London from an operation.

She said: "In September I took a huge decline and admitted to Llandough Hospital near Cardiff .

"My carbon dioxide levels during that stay made me become unresponsive so I was blue-lighted to Harefield for what they call ecmo [extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation] last-resort treatment."

(Image: Jai Eastwood Photography)

The life support treatment takes over from your heart and lungs, but kidneys start to fail after four weeks.

Kim did recover and was sent back to Llandough and she was even well enough to go home and made an appearance on Channel Five show The Wright Stuff promoting organ donation.

But in October her health declined again.

“I was hit even harder and this one I wasn’t going to recover from,” she said.

“I was rushed back to Llandough and then transferred to the high-dependency unit to be intubated – but it wasn’t enough.

“I was now seriously very ill with 14% lungs.

"Royal Brompton sent two ambulances with medical equipment to get me to intensive care at Harefield. I was now critical with very limited time, possibly hours, left.

"I don't remember any of this. I was offered lungs on day three of being top of the transplant list."

Now Kim is recovering in hospital, does not need oxygen for the first time in two years, and is very grateful.

“I would be dead today without my donor and their family who kindly agreed to help me live,” she said.

“No words can ever be enough to that family and I think of them every day – their loss they saved my life.

“Please consider organ donation and leave part of your loved ones to live on through people like me.

“I will never forget my donor or the gift they’ve given me.”