SARAH Hickman is waiting for the phone to ring.
Connected to an oxygen tank 24-7 and on permanent intravenous antibiotics, the call the 41-year-old writer is waiting for will hopefully save her life.
But time is running out for the cystic fibrosis sufferer who has already been waiting seven months to hear whether a donor has been found for the life-saving double lung transplant she desperately needs.
And while she continues to fend off infections and enjoys life as best she can with her husband David, she is also served with daily reminders of how far removed she is from a normal existence.
"I'm on oxygen and get tired very easily," said Sarah, from Roundhay, Leeds, who is now confined to a wheelchair.
"My quality of life isn't brilliant, but I try to make the best of it. It's not what it could be.
"Even just a year ago I was still able to go to loads of gigs, seeing bands like U2, Coldplay, REM, Snow Patrol and Keane.
"I've been to see Robbie Williams twice and it's ironic he's going to be playing down the road at Roundhay Park and I won't be able to get there."
She added: "It's just the little things, like walking up the road to buy a paper, that most people probably take for granted that I miss the most.
"I miss swimming, it's one of the things I love doing. The idea of going swimming again, especially in the sea, is something I look forward to."
Even though more than 400 people died waiting for a transplant in the UK last year, Sarah is looking forward to the future, hopeful a donor will be found.
Disease
She has already lived far longer than the average 31 years of most people with cystic fibrosis, the UK's most common life-threatening genetic disease.
A transplant could give her and David, who she married last year, an extra 15 years together.
"Overall, I'm positive. You have bad days, but the fact that I'm a positive person has got me where I am today. When I get a bit depressed I've got David or my mum I can turn to.
"It was only a couple of months ago that I started looking beyond the transplant. I've never been one with huge long-term ambitions but I've started thinking it would be great to go back to the Lake District.
"People get on about the NHS but I've been incredibly lucky that I've had good medical care. It breaks my heart to hear of situations in countries that are not as fortunate as we are so I would like to get into raising money for charities that help provide medicines for deprived countries."
At the moment, Sarah charitable efforts are focussed on the NHS Organ Donor Register. Specifically, she has become the region's face in a new campaign to raise awareness of the register, called Live Life Then Give Life, set up by Emily Thackray, 21, from Surrey and Emma Harris, 32, from Wiltshire, both of whom have cystic fibrosis.
Now Sarah is urging others to send out a positive message and encourage people to think and talk about their wishes, by wearing one of the campaign's T-shirts, sporting either the Live Life Then Give Life message or the cheeky I'd Give You One slogan.
Currently, families have the right to veto their relative's decision to donate their organs after they have died. Sarah's husband David said: "The important message of this campaign is that it's more respectful to go ahead with the person's wishes than it is to respond to the knee-jerk instinct to say 'no, you're not going to cut into my relative's body'."
The campaign also supports Transplants in Mind, the national charity behind National Transplant Week and the Donor Bus – promoting the positive benefits of organ and tissue donation for transplantation, throughout the year.

• You can sign up to the NHS Organ Donation Register online at www.uktransplant.org.uk.
To find out more about the Live Life then Give Life campaign and T-shirts, see www.livelifethengivelife.co.uk.
geoff.fox@ypn.co.uk


THIS time last year Catherine Hallinan thought she would be dead by Christmas.
She was so ill her daughter Gemma ditched plans to tie the knot in 2006 and brought her wedding date forward to October, fearing otherwise her mum wouldn't live long enough to see her walk up the aisle.
A debilitating lung condition meant she could barely walk five metres and suffered exhausting coughing fits which triggered vomiting, so she was losing weight rapidly.
Twelve months on, 60-year-old Catherine regularly hits the treadmill and exercise bike at her local health club in Headingley, Leeds, and is planning an overseas trip.
The miraculous transformation is the result of something very simple – a lung transplant.
The mum-of-four was 34 when she was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, which involves inflammation of the lungs.
She lived a normal life but more than 25 years of taking steroids scarred her lungs so badly she developed fibrosis alveolitis – a serious disease that causes inflammation and scarring of the alveoli, tiny air sacs in the lung.
Her health gradually deteriorated and the physical demands of teaching at Sacred Heart Primary School, Kirkstall, became unbearable. After working there 14 years she was forced to retire in 2002.
In 2004 her consultant at Leeds General Infirmary sent her to be assessed at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle. But she was told she was too healthy to be considered for a transplant.
By the beginning of 2005 she was told she would die without one and was put on the transplant list in June.
She was told to await their call but didn't believe it would ever come.
She said: "Some people get the call and some people never get it.
"I didn't think I would see Christmas.
Exhausting
"I lost my sister Mary in 1998 and my husband Norm in 2001 and thought, well it's me next."
Although Catherine was desperately ill she always liked to look her best. But simply getting washed and dressed would take around two hours.
It was so exhausting she had to keep resting throughout and had to sit to wash her hair.
She said: "I was really in a bad way. I was just incredibly lucky because I was only on the list six weeks when I got the call."
"I went up on standby and had heard all about false calls. I fully expected to be back in the morning."
But the woman ahead of Catherine on the list needed a double transplant and one of the donor lungs was damaged.
One was deemed enough for Catherine and before she knew it she was being wheeled into surgery for her life-saving operation.
The impact was immediate. The next morning she was up and about, walking around the ward and able to shower without needing a rest.
She said: "I just felt so blessed when I was in that room, walking around the ward. I thought 'I can't believe I can do this'.
"I absolutely sailed through that operation – I had no pain. I couldn't believe I'd had a transplant.
"It was unbelievable. I was on such a high, I've never come down.
"I just think I'm so, so lucky that I can walk. When I see people in wheelchairs my heart goes out to them because I think, 'not long ago I was like you and now I'm walking around just through the gift the donor has given me.
"I don't take anything for granted."
Within three weeks she had been discharged from hospital, although she will be on anti-rejection drugs for the rest of her life.
Catherine was filled with emotion when she was not only able to be present at Gemma's wedding at St Urban's Church, Headingley, she could walk unaided down the aisle.
Her experience has inspired the whole family to sign up as donors.

• Catherine's son Michael, 32, organised a football match on Saturday at Boddington Hall, Weetwood, to raise awareness of organ donation and raise funds for the Freeman Heart and Lung Transplant Association.
Around 30 friends and family played in the Hallinan-Nelson Challenge Cup, with winners paying £5 each to take part and losers £10 each. There was a raffle afterwards.
Michael raised around £500 with a similar event last year for Macmillan nurses. It was held in memory of his dad and aunt Mary Nelson, who both died of cancer.
debbie.leigh@ypn.co.uk