Double lung transplant journalist Mark Allen has told how he is fighting back after his body rejected his new organs.

The 35-year-old Cystic Fibrosis sufferer was diagnosed with chronic rejection in January, 15 months after his life-saving transplant.

Since then he has undergone a series of tests at a transplant centre in Newcastle, and has now been told that the deterioration had begun to subside.

He said: “The lungs are down to operating at about 27 per cent, and won’t recover what they have lost, but they do seem to have stabilised.

“I’ve been told that my body will make better use of the lung capacity I have left so that’s good news.”

Mark, a former Express & Star and Staffordshire Newsletter journalist, is still at risk of losing even more lung capacity in the future, and has said he is determined to make the most of now.

He is currently working as a a press officer for Halton Council in Widnes, having had to spend many months off work through illness both before and after his transplant.

Mark said: “Some days I can still barely manage a flight of stairs, but other days I am able to walk around town with little problems.

“I am a fighter and have a history of proving doctors wrong.”

Mark underwent more than 30 operations after being struck down by pneumonia while travelling through Australia, Asia and the Far East, leading to him needing the transplant.

Last year he also appeared in a local version of Big Brother, and spent five-days living in a glass house in Cannock town centre.

He said: “After all the countries I have lived in and all I have done with my life, I will be doing my level best to have a future ahead of me – whatever that takes.”