CHRONICALLY ill Ann-Marie Jones' dream came true when she was able to walk down the aisle last September.

Now she faces an agonising wait for a suitable donor for a life-saving operation which will give her many more precious moments with her husband.

The 26-year-old cystic fibrosis sufferer, who spent three months in hospital after her lung collapsed, returned home on Tuesday.

A stay at Llandough Hospital came just months after marrying Mark, 28, at St Cadoc's Church when she was able to push herself out of her wheelchair and walk to the groom. Now back with her family, Mrs Jones, of Winstone Road, Trevethin, is hoping for an early lung transplant because it could mean she lives more than a decade longer than would otherwise be expected.

Without it she knows she is facing a race against time, with the average life expectancy of a cystic fibrosis sufferer only stretching to 31. And at the moment, children are simply not on the agenda.

She is hoping for a quick go-ahead after being put on a waiting list for the operation at Harefield Hospital in Middlesex. But the hospital warns that the wait for the operation could be up to five years.

"A transplant would completely transform my life," says the former Abersychan Comprehensive School pupil. "It will mean I will be able to do things I can't normally do. Getting married and being able to walk down the aisle was a wonderful feeling. "It was the happiest day of my life and an operation will mean I can live pretty much a normal life."

Mrs Jones has been coping with cystic fibrosis her whole life. Symptoms include mucus on the lungs, digestive problems, and there is a strong possibility she could develop diabetes.

And to help her breathing and help her spend more time out of a wheelchair she needs physiotherapy three times a day.

"You just try to get on with it," she says. "I used to get bullied and I sometimes felt left out because I couldn't join in with the other kids but thankfully the condition is not normally very painful.

"But It was the first time my lung collapsed, and it was very frightening. My chest felt so tight and I could not breathe.

"I was in hospital for three months because my lung collapsed twice and I had some infections - it was a nightmare."

Husband Mark, who used to be a bus driver for Gwent company Glyn Williams but gave up to care for his wife, said he hated seeing her suffer.

"It can be very difficult," he says. "You wish you could do more but you can't. A transplant would be brilliant because she would be able to live a more normal life and it would give her an extra ten years - maybe more."