TWO young girls face a future without their mum unless she receives a life-saving transplant within the year.

Sally-Anne Grainger was born with cystic fibrosis and five years ago doctors told her she would need a double lung transplant.

The 29-year-old has been waiting ever since, but her condition is now so serious she may not live until Christmas.

Her only hope is to pay $500,000 (£350,000) for a transplant in America and the mother of two is now desperately trying to raise enough money.

“I do not have much time left but I am still going to fight,” said Miss Grainger, who is divorced from the father of her children.

“I don’t like to think about it much but I don’t think I will be here next year if I don’t get a transplant.

“I don’t want my children to be without a mum or to understand their mummy will go to heaven if I do not get my lungs.”

Miss Grainger’s condition started to deteriorate when she was pregnant with her second daughter Megan, who is now five years old.

It was then doctors decided she needed the double transplant and she was added to the list in September 2005.

But the single mother has not been successful because at 4ft 11in her frame is too small for donated adult lungs, yet she is too heavy for a child’s organ.

The hereditary disease now means Miss Grainger, of Swallowfields, Warndon Villages, Worcester, is on 24-hour oxygen and takes 40 tablets a day.

Her eldest daughter, nine-year-old Kelsey-Louise, a pupil with her sister at Claines CE Primary School, gives her daily physiotherapy and she needs intro-venous antibiotics to fight infections.

Last year she spent eight months in hospital fighting for her life.

Although Miss Grainger’s doctors are considering radical surgery involving cutting donated lungs to size, she believes her best chance is to go to America where she is more likely to get a suitable size organ donated.

She hopes the Department of Health will pay half the cost of the trip, which includes flights, the operation and hospital care.

“I have been in touch with the American cystic fibrosis transplant team and once I am there I can have one in three weeks because there are donors,” she said.

“A transplant will not cure the disease, but it will give me anything from an extra five to 20 years, which allows me to see my girls growing up. It will mean I can start living and breathing. I could go back to university to finish my forensic science degree which I had to give up two years ago”

She wants more people to join the organ donor register, which can be done by calling 08456 060400.

She said: “It takes five minutes to become a donor and then you do not have to think about it again. It would save so many lives.”

To help Miss Grainger get to America, you can donate money via a special account at Barclays bank. The account name is Sally-Anne Grainger Transplant Fund account, the sort code is 20-98-61 and the account number is 50924849.