ALLOA double lung transplant patient Lisa Hertwig is now awake, although she is not out of the woods yet.

Brave Lisa, 25, is still on many drips and antibiotics, but she has taken to social media for the first time since her transplant finally went ahead on November 5, after three years of waiting and a two false calls to Newcastle.

In a post on her Lisa Hertwig Transplant Tales page, she said this weekend: “ I am now aware of my surroundings, yet I’m not out the woods yet.”

She said she is still taking a lot of medicine and went back on dialysis to help her kidneys.

Lisa added: “[I have] also been learning how to stand and then sit on a chair. Also, I have a [tracheostomy], which is a hole in my neck so I breathe through it as it’s a ventilator. But it doesn’t allow me to talk so I have been using notepads and pens to communicate. [However], today I got to try a new valve where I could talk, which means tomorrow I can try again and this time try the swallow test and see if I can drink again. Thank each and everyone of you for your well wishes. Please keep me in your thoughts as I have a long way to go still [...]”

She added: “My thoughts are always with the donor and their family as they are giving me my life back.”

Nearly all her life, Lisa had been battling cystic fibrosis, a genetic disorder that mostly affects the lungs, but also the pancreas, liver, kidneys and intestine. The former Abercromby Primary and Lornshill Academy pupil previously described how her lung capacity was sitting at just 17 per cent, making everyday tasks very difficult. A few years ago she explained: “If you put a straw in your mouth and hold your nose and just breathe in and out normally. That’s how it feels for us.”

As her illness got worse over the years, she became reliant on oxygen tanks and used a mobility scooter to get around town.

Lisa originally shared her story to encourage more people to donate their organs, something she has campaigned for tirelessly.

Hoping to reach more people with her message, she had appeared in the second episode of BBC One Scotland documentary Transplant Tales last year.

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

No cure for the disease is known and for many, like Lisa, a double lung transplant is the only way to extend life expectancy.