BATTLING teenager Robert Daly has been given the gift of life in a dramatic eight-hour double-lung transplant early today.

Cystic fibrosis sufferer Robert, above, who is 15 next week, has spent the last 10 years in and out of hospital fighting the effects of the disease.

Although it won't be known for some time if the complex operation has been successful, family and friends are praying it will finally give him the chance to lead a normal life.

Robert's condition has been detoriating for several years and he was seen as such an urgent transplant case that he carried a bleeper with him all the time in case a suitable donor was found.

And at 5.30pm yesterday the bleeper finally went off at Robert's family home in Arran Avenue, Blackburn. Within 40 minutes Robert and mum Julie were on their way by ambulance to the world famous Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London where surgeons were preparing the theatre for the marathon operation.

At 11.35pm the complex operation began and eight hours later the transplant was complete.

"He's under heavy sedation at the moment and obviously we won't know how well the operation has gone for some time," said stepdad Kevin who is looking after Robert's brother John, who also suffers from cystic fibrosis, and sister Gemma back home.

"But we're keeping our fingers crossed that everything will be all right. If it works he will be just like any other lad although he will still have to take tablets to stop his body rejecting the new lungs."

Robert's godfather Les Smalley, a newsagent in Rishton, described the news as "marvellous".

"He's been deteriorating over the past 12 months and he's been through such a lot for a young lad. We're all hoping the transplant works."

Robert, who used to live in Ribblesdale Avenue, Accrington, and went to Peel Park primary school, is currently on the David Waterson ward at Great Ormond Street and is expected to stay there for around six weeks.

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