A jubilant Charlene Barr has been given the green light for her life-saving double lung transplant. The Co Armagh teenager, whose heart-warming story featured in last week’s Sunday Life, had been told earlier this year that she was in urgent need of the critical surgery, but failed to make it on to the waiting list because she was underweight.

Her deteriorating health over the past year caused her weight to plummet to just five stone five lbs.

In order to have the best chance of recovery from such major surgery Charlene, who has Cystic Fibrosis, was told that she needed to weigh at least six stone four lbs.

For the last few weeks the 19-year-old has been desperately trying to pile on the pounds to ensure she would be accepted onto the waiting list when she met with surgeons from Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital in recent days.

“I was only an ounce off it and I was really worried they wouldn’t accept me,” said Charlene.

“They went through a lot of information about my blood group and the type of lung I would need and I really thought they were building up to give me bad news, but they told me they would be putting me on the waiting list and I was so relieved.

“If they had said no, I would have had to wait another three months before seeing them again and it would have been a big disappointment.

“I’m delighted that at least I now know I have a good chance of getting the operation I need.”

Charlene was told to have her bag packed and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

She is now waiting on a suitable donor which could happen anytime within the next three years.

In the meantime, if she travels any distance from her home, even for the day, she has to alert the hospital of her whereabouts.

“Big brother will be watching,” she joked.

“I can’t leave the country until I get called for the operation and I have to let them know if I go out for the day so that they will know where to send the ambulance.

“They told me I could be waiting three days or three years, the average is two and a half years, but it is impossible to predict.”

While coming to terms with the seriousness of her condition, big-hearted Charlene decided to launch an appeal to raise £70,000 to build a new school in Uganda.

Launched just five weeks ago via a blog on the Internet, Charlene’s Project had already amassed £5,000 in donations when highlighted in Sunday Life last week.

So moved were our readers by Charlene’s selflessness that donations have poured in, swelling the fund to £7,400 in just a few days.

Charlene added: “It’s fantastic that so many people went online and donated after reading Sunday Life and many of them were anonymous.

“I would like to thank them all and everyone who is organising fund-raising events.

“We have still a long way to go but I am confident we will make it to the £70,000 needed by next year.”

You can catch up on Charlene’s medical progress and support her appeal via her blog on www.charlenesproject-theschool.blogspot.com