Most people in their 20s look forward to leaving home, going to University or travelling the world, but one young cystic fibrosis sufferer just longed for the day she could walk upstairs without collapsing into a “coughing, spluttering mess”.

Now, thanks to a lung transplant, 20-year-old Kate Hennessey from Wimborne has had a second chance at life and is planning on going to a number of festivals this summer.

Kate and her mother Gail Stewart are urging families to start discussing organ donation, as they say it is important to sign up to the register and ensure your loved ones know your wishes in the event of a sudden accident.

Gail said: “It is usually down to the immediate family to make the final decision when someone is placed on a life-support machine and nobody wants to see their loved one hacked up, but in the end there is no point two people dying when one can live.”

“I always say, if you would accept, you should donate.”

In preparation for National Transplant week which starts on Monday, Kate and Gail are stressing the fact that hospitals can only use 40 per cent of the available organs because members of the family often refuse to allow permission. One in three cystic fibrosis sufferers die waiting for a lung transplant, according to the brave family.

Kate said: “There is no point in two people dying when one can live.”

Kate was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at four and a half months after two bouts of pneumonia when she weighed less than when she was born.

She was able to attend Corfe Hills for several years and gained seven good G.C.S.Es including two As, but her deteriorating health forced Kate to leave school at the age of 15.

“I started hitting rock bottom, the switch just went and I caught an infection.”

Kate became very ill in early 2012, and needed a lung transplant, but the lack of registered donors meant spending months in hospital waiting for one to become available.

She was kept alive by a heart lung bypass ecmo machine for a week before being given her new lungs at Harefield Hospital last August.

Kate was the youngest person in the UK to have gone through this process and in one hour alone she coughed up a pint of blood.

She said: “My life was hanging by a thread, if the transplant had been three months earlier I would have been in a much better state, but in the end I was put onto an ecmo machine because my lungs completely failed.”

“The lung transplant changed everything for me because it has given me a second chance at a life, I cried the first time I went outside because I had been inside hospital for so long.”

There were complications after the operation and Kate has now gone blind in her left eye, caught an infection in her nasal passages and lost 60 per cent of her hearing. Doctors also found a large abscess in her left lung which they thought would kill her.

Kate said: “I want to emphasise that this is not usual, I was very unlucky, so I don’t want to put anyone off donating.”

She is considering contacting her donor because she is in a place where she is back enjoying and appreciating life.

“I will never be able to put into words how much I appreciate the donor for what they did. A total stranger gave me life.

“I know this will sound strange, but I don’t want to let the lungs down.”

The family host an annual charity event called Hen Fest in their back garden to celebrate Kate’s survival following the life-saving lung transplant. Gail and her husband Mike started the festival three years ago and the one-day event raises money for cystic fibrosis research and furnishing a new patients’ room at Harefield Hospital.

A friend of Kate’s called Hannah Elder also created a short film called, ‘It’s Time We Talked’ which uses Kate’s story to raise awareness about organ donation.