Student is first in Britain to have four life-saving transplants

Over the past 12 years, Allison John, 29, has received a liver, kidney, lungs and a heart.

Her latest recovery from surgery has been so swift she is already planning trips around the world with her boyfriend.

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"The doctors had written me off," she said. "But I'm still here. I feel very lucky to have had so many chances at life."

Miss John owes her latest lease of life to her father, David, who donated his kidney when she suffered renal failure.

Her problems, however, date back to her birth when she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

When she was seven she was told she had problems with her liver and aged 14 doctors said she would need a transplant. An agonising 16 month wait for a match followed and it came just as doctors gave her three days to live.

She had actually been offered a donor liver four months earlier - but had generously given it to another patient.

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Miss John had her transplant in September 1995 at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. She said: "It was just so lucky that another liver came up in time. Otherwise I wouldn't have made it."

After battling back to health, Miss John began a degree in neuroscience at Cardiff University, but six months in she fell ill with lung failure.

She said: "By the time Dad came to take me home he had to give me a piggy-back ride down the stairs. I was so weak I couldn't do it on my own."

This time a match was found immediately, but doctors decided it was better to replace both her heart and lungs.

The March 1997 operation was a success, and Miss John's original healthy heart was given to man who had suffered several heart attacks.

After four weeks of recovery she returned home and went back to her studies, enjoying a healthy period for some years.

However, there was more disaster around the corner. The medication she was taking to stop rejection of her three transplanted organs caused kidney damage, and in April 2005 she was diagnosed with renal failure.

Tests showed her father was a perfect match and he had no hesitation in stepping in to help. "It was the greatest gift of all he could ever have given me," she said.

Now living in Cardiff, Miss John says she is leaving for China with her boyfriend Nathan Angell next month. She is also planning a trip to New Zealand to meet his parents. After that she intends to finish a second medical course at university.