AFTER two false calls and more than three years on the waiting list, Alloa woman Lisa Hertwig has finally had her double lung transplant.

Cystic fibrosis sufferer Lisa, who was first put on the transplant list in summer 2013, and her family rushed to Newcastle once more on Friday after being told lungs were available.

They waited an agonising 17 hours to find out if the operation could go ahead.

It was third time lucky as the lungs were healthy and Lisa was well enough to go through with the surgery.

After the successful operation, Lisa was on a ventilator and the process of recovering will take some time. On waking one of the first things she did was ask her mum for her phone.

She has compared breathing with cystic fibrosis to breathing through a straw so her new lungs will take some getting used to.

Her friend, Jamie, posted on the Lisa Hertwig Transplant Tales Facebook: “Lisa being Lisa, is being stubborn and is wanting the ventilator off as it's uncomfortable for her. They (medical staff) are wanting her to try breath normally (bigger and longer breaths). As you can imagine over the years she is used to breathing taking shorter breaths so it's trying to get her to think she can breath normally. Once she is used to doing that they are then able to take her off it.”

Cystic fibrosis causes mucus to damage the lungs and for many with the illness, a double lung transplant is the only way to extend life expectancy.

Since she was put on the transplant list, life has been on hold for the 25-year-old and her family as they waited for the call that would change their life.

She has twice raced across the border to Newcastle, where the operation would take place, after being told lungs were available – only to be devastated when they were not healthy enough for transplant.

After the second heartbreaking incident earlier this year, Lisa said: “Waiting on the transplant is becoming more difficult for me mentally. It's kind of like if someone's got cancer but they said we might give you chemo, we might not. We might call you in, we might not.”

As her illness became worse, she was reliant on oxygen and used a mobility scooter to get around.

Lisa has become a local celebrity having appeared on the BBC's Transplant Tales programme last year. She was delighted to attend the Scottish BAFTAs and hob nob with celebrities when the series was nominated for an award.

More recently, she featured in a BBC Alba series on living with cystic fibrosis.

She has also been a tireless campaigner for getting people to sign up for the organ donor register.

Lisa backed an opt-out system similar to the one introduced in Wales last year. This means it is assumed you consent to having your organs donated unless you say otherwise.

A bill on the topic was narrowly defeated in the Scottish Parliament but there are moves to bring back the idea as it was the detail rather the principle MSPs objected to.