MIRACLE double-lung transplant mum Natalie Kerr has told a group of youngsters about the importance of organ donation — and how it saved her life.

Last year, 31-year-old Miss Kerr thought she was going to die.

But after a double-lung transplant, the former Royal Bolton Hospital nurse’s life was transformed.

Over the past year she has made an incredible recovery.

Just hours before her life-saving transplant, Miss Kerr was comforted by her old college friend Helen Norman. And Miss Norman, who attended Bolton North College with Miss Kerr when they were teenagers and is her son’s godmother, has seen first hand the importance of organ donation.

Now, Miss Norman, a teacher at St Savior Primary School, in Fold Road, Kearsley, wants everyone to be aware of the donor register and has organised a week of events at the school to teach the youngsters the importance of organ donation.

Miss Kerr took part in a special assembly where she explained how her transplant meant her children 10-year-old Brandon and five-year-old Isabelle would grow up with a mother. Miss Kerr said: “It is good to get the message to children so they can go home and talk about it with their family. I have spoken to Brandon about it and he is willing to give his organs because he has seen how it has helped me.

“Isabelle will say now and again, 'Mummy I love your new lungs' and it is because of everything I can do now.”

Miss Norman said the change in her friend since her transplant has been amazing.

She added: “I can remember when Natalie couldn’t even pick Isabelle up, she was constantly in pain and now she is amazing and I can’t believe I have got my friend back and she has got a new lease of life and we are constantly thankful.”

Pupils at the school said they wanted to tell their parents about the donor register.

Lani Maynard, aged seven, said: “If we die and someone else is very poorly and they need something from our body that we don’t need again like lungs, then they can take the lungs out of the body and put them in their body and then they don’t die.

“Someone has already died so it is better if someone can live.”

To become an organ donor or a blood donor, call 0300 123 23 23 or visit blood.co.uk or uktransplant.org.uk