Eight months after a crucial bone marrow transplant, Nicola Coates is flying off to Germany on a VIP trip organised by the Royal Dragoon Guards.

When Nicola, from Wheldrake, near York, was desperately searching for a marrow donor last autumn, about 50 soldiers from the Guards volunteered to help by joining the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust's register of potential donors.

They also issued an invitation, via the Evening Press, for Nicola to join them for a day out with the tanks on Salisbury Plain when she was well enough.

But before she had even undergone her successful transplant earlier this year from an American donor, the RDG had moved to Munster in Germany.

However, when the Press contacted the Army to ask if there was any way she could still join them, the Guards pulled out all the stops.

And today the 26-year-old is flying out with her father Gary on a three-day expenses-paid trip from Stansted.

The Guards, who recruit from North Yorkshire and whose regimental museum is based near Clifford's Tower, are keeping the itinerary under wraps until she gets there but are promising an enjoyable time.

Nicola said she had won the go-ahead for the trip from doctors, after they had originally said she should not leave the country this year.

She said the doctors at Leeds General Infirmary were delighted by her progress since the transplant op in March. "I am off medication," said Nicola.

She said she went to classes at York College in shorthand and computing, but had found time dragging during her long recuperation period and was looking forward to the trip.

When Nicola returns, she will hardly have got time to touch down on English soil before she is off again on a six-night trip to New York with friends.