HAVING recently learned to drive, Sharon Tierney's next ambition is to go on holiday abroad by aeroplane.

These may seem modest achievements and goals to most, but to the 30-year-old they are further proof she can live a normal life.

Nine years ago, she lay in a Royal Gwent Hospital bed as doctors tried to disperse potentially fatal blood clots in her right leg.

At the time it was thought they may have been caused by her being on the contraceptive pill or by prolonged immobility following a serious back operation.

But subsequently another possibility was revealed. She was tested following another clot scare and found to be suffering protein C deficiency, which can make the body susceptible to DVT.

There is a family history of blood clots. Miss Tierney's father and grandmother died from them. Suddenly, she too was faced with the possibility.

"I'd fractured my back and after that I had to have an operation because a prolapsed disc was pressing on a nerve. I couldn't feel anything below my waist," said Miss Tierney, of Sycamore Road South, Sebastopol.

"Afterwards I lay on my back for four weeks. My right leg got quite swollen, red and cold, and I felt pain when I tried to walk. The hospital did a dye test and found five or six clots in it."

She was given anti-coagulant drugs heparin and warfarin to thin the blood. "They explained that if the clots moved and moved too fast, I might have died. I was terrified. I thought I was going to die," she said.

Another course of drugs followed after a suspected blood clot in 1995. When Miss Tierney became pregnant for the first time she had heparin and fragmin injections under the skin twice a day, every day, to minimise the risk of clotting.

She read up on the subjects to find how best to cope. "DVT is dangerous. I know it can kill, but it does not kill everybody and it is important to know the facts. It is not a life sentence.

"One thing I heard early on was that you could not drive a car. I've passed my driving test and I drive all over the place."

The mother of two has begun a full-time job and is saving to go on holiday on an aeroplane. She insists she will not be deterred by the furore surrounding flight-related DVT.

The issue was highlighted by the death of Emma Christo-ffersen, of Waltwood Road, Llanmartin.

Emma, 28, collapsed and died soon after arriving at Heathrow last October, following a 12,000-mile flight from Australia.

Her death led to an inquiry by the House of Lords, which demanded airlines provide more information about the risks. Her parents are campaigning to raise awareness of the issue of flight-related DVT.