Girl, 5, becomes youngest in world to have double lung transplant

Today, after becoming Britain's youngest recipient of a double lung transplant, Mariam Imran is a picture of health.

The five-year-old was born with cystic fibrosis, a hereditary disease that affects the respiratory and digestive systems.

Last year her health deteriorated so much that she had to be given oxygen to breathe.

She desperately needed a lung transplant, but there is an acute shortage of donors among the Asian community.

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Although the recipient of a transplant does not have to be from the same ethnic group as the donor, people of the same colour are more likely to be a match.

Finally in January a donor was found and surgeons at Great Ormond Street Hospital performed the eight-hour operation.

Now Mariam is back at school, and running around with her friends.

After watching the amazing transformation in her daughter, Faaiza Dar, 25, is urging more black and Asian people to register as donors.

Miss Dar said: "You don't think you'll ever need to know about these things. But people need to have the issues around organ donation highlighted."

Mariam was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at three months.

Her lungs became covered in mucus, and she often struggled to breathe.

Last year, doctors gave her mother the news about her life expectancy.

"I was so scared," said Miss Dar, of Blackburn, Lancashire. "I was shaking and I cried a lot."

Four months later, however, an organ was found and the operation went ahead. Four weeks after that, Mariam was moved to her local hospital where she stayed until April.

"She didn't used to speak very much because she got out of breath easily, but now she's picking up on everything and full of life," said Miss Dar.

"I still wrap her up in cotton wool and she tells me off."

She added: "I can't imagine what it was like for the family who donated the lungs. It must have been a very hard decision but I want to say a massive thank you."

Since the operation, an even younger child has had a double lung transplant.

Black and Asian people are three times more likely to need a kidney transplant than those from other ethnic origins. But they make up less than 2 per cent of deceased donors.

Tamsin May, of UK Transplant, said: "We need people to talk about their wishes for organ donation and join the register."