Lucy, 13, given hours to live

Doctors are today praying they will be able to save the life of a young girl who desperately needs a lung transplant.

Lucy Travell-White, 13, is facing death from cystic fibrosis and last night her parents made a last-ditch appeal for donors.

But only hours later she developed a viral infection which will prevent surgeons from operating even if a donor is found - and doctors fear Lucy may not survive today.

A source at Great Ormond Street Hospital where she is fighting for life said today: "All we can do is pray. It's a race against time to clear up the infection."

Lucy's situation has been dire since she suffered a collapsed lung in November after a trip to Disneyland Paris, and though an operation to reinflate it was partially successful, the mucus caused by the disease has collected on her lungs again, leaving her unable to breathe.

Lucy, from Chislehurst in Kent - she will be 14 in three weeks' time - has spent the last five weeks in hospital and is in intensive care. New lungs could extend her life by up to a decade if a transplant operation were to prove a success.

But the drugs that transplant patients must take to stop their bodies rejecting implanted organs suppress the immune system, and that would prevent Lucy's body from being able to fight the infection.

Lucy's father David Austin-White, 36, who was at the press conference with his wife Sam, 35, said that his daughter was a bright, artistic girl who loved animals and never complained, despite having suffered from the progressive illness for her entire life.

He said: "Lucy is not going to live without a transplant. It is our last hope. Lucy is strong, she has fought off many other chest infections over the years and doesn't allow anything to pull her down. We are lucky to have her today. We will be lucky to have her tomorrow. The day after we will be ecstatic. So things are extremely, extremely sensitive at the moment.

"Sam and myself and the medical staff have been able to communicate with her and have informed her of the ramifications. She wants to breathe again. She knows the dangers but she wants it."

A spokesman for the hospital said: "It really is desperate. We have to wait for the infection to clear up before we can think about a transplant going ahead and time is not on our side.

"It is very hard to know exactly what will happen with cystic fibrosis and we are hoping she will be able to fight off the infection, but we don't envisage that she will be well enough to be operated on in the next few days. Things are very, very hard for the family at the moment."

Rosie Barnes, chief executive of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust based in Bromley, Kent, said: "Cystic fibrosis is a life threatening condition and continues to claim many young lives.

"Ninety per cent of those who die from cystic-fibrosis die from lung failure. When sufferers reach this stage of the condition, their only hope is a lung transplant, but 50 per cent die on the waiting list."

The NHS Organ Donor Register can be contacted on 0845 6060400, or visit the websites: either www.uktransplant.org.uk or www.nhs.uk/organdonor.