WITHOUT a stranger’s gift of a new heart, Lynda Morrison would not have lived beyond the age of seven.

A virus had caused her to develop the heart muscle disease cardiomyopathy, and when her parents finally received the phone call to say a matching donor had been found, she had only days left to live.

Sixteen years on, Lynda is full of health, having just returned from the European Heart and Lung Transplant Games in Sweden, where she picked up three silver medals and a bronze one, for swimming and cross-country walking.

But her recovery was not plain sailing. In 2006, Lynda’s kidneys failed due to the medication she had been taking after the heart transplant – and to stay alive she had to undergo dialysis treatment three days a week.

Lynda needed a kidney transplant – and her mum, Kerry, wasted no time in coming forward to give her daughter yet another chance of life by donating one of her kidneys.

Kerry, 57, a teaching assistant who lives in Harrogate, said: “I didn’t need to think twice. As a mother, it’s the most natural thing to do. She now has three kidneys and I have one. Lynda’s recovery has been beyond our wildest dreams. She has so much vigour and health now. She is laughing again and she enjoys life so much.”

Lynda, 23, and Kerry are now backing The Press’s Lifesavers Campaign, which aims to encourage an extra 20,000 people across York and North and East Yorkshire to join the organ donor register by the end of this year.

Kerry said: “I really thought we were going to lose Lynda when she was waiting for a heart transplant. We were told that in the next few days she would die and I was praying by day and by night that some blessing would come.”

Lynda, who is a volunteer at the Cancer Research UK shop in Harrogate, said: “If a heart hadn’t become available when it did, I wouldn’t be here today. It makes me feel very lucky and thankful.

“I would say to people sign up to the register because people deserve a second chance at life. I love life and I make the most of every day because I never know what will happen.”

For more information on organ donation or to join the register, phone 0300 1232323 or visit organdonation.nhs.uk or text SAVE to 84118.