Mum-of-one Mandy Andrews, 40, has already had a new heart and lung – and then a double lung transplant after that – after a lifetime of health problems.

She was left stunned earlier this year when doctors told her she now needs a new kidney.

Mandy wins a makeover >>

But the Hartlepool mum – who is dubbed the Bionic Woman by her family – today vowed: "I will keep on fighting. I will do it for my seven-year-old son. I love him to bits".

Mandy cannot even be registered for a transplant until doctors are convinced that her lungs and heart can stand more surgery.

The battling Chaucer Road resident added: "I was absolutely gutted when the doctor told me I needed a new kidney after everything else I have gone through. I have been in and out of hospital all my life."

She was born with a congenital heart defect, and had her first operation was when she was just six weeks old, at Great Ormond Street Hospital, in London, in 1967.

Doctors knew she would need further surgery and her eight-hour heart and lung transplant was carried out at Harefield Hospital, in Middlesex, in 1986.

But her lungs began showing signs of rejection and, just eight years later, she underwent a nine-hour double lung transplant at Harefield, in 1994, when she was 27.

Medics had to carry out the transplant after Mandy suffered a spate of infections and was "coughing up gunk", she said.

Her weight had plummeted in the months before the operation from nine-and-a-half stones to four stones.

She added: "It was pitiful. I was at death's door. I couldn't move from one side of the bed to the other without getting out of breath.

"I told my dad to sell my car because I thought I was going to die".
Thankfully, a match was found for the vital organs she needed – for the second time.

She made a full recovery, and Mandy's life took another turn for the better seven years ago when her cherished son, Harry, was born. He weighed 5lb 11oz and was born at the RVI hospital, in Newcastle.

The beaming mum said today: "I have a little boy and my mum. If I didn't have them I would have given up. They have been great.

"Harry is a proper little lad and I absolutely love him. It is because of him that I am going to keep fighting."

But now doctors have told her of the latest health setback.

Mandy said: "There were no symptoms. I had gone to the doctors because I was having problems with eczema, and there was a letter for me to see a kidney specialist. I was off my food but I did not feel ill."

Tests revealed Mandy's kidneys were being attacked by an infection.

She said: "I couldn't believe it. I thought 'after all I have been through, this is happening to me'. I cried my eyes out".

Mandy needs three-hour dialysis three times a week at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Mandy added:"This time last year I was well and I just wish I could turn the clock back."