CF sufferers typically have a short life expectancy. At present, sufferers rarely survive beyond their teens, although there is some hope that a cure will emerge from current research into the potential of gene-replacement therapy.

Despite all this, Emma was a happy and contented child who, as time went by, began to show signs of developing a degree of intelligence somewhat above the average.

One example may suffice:
Every two weeks, Emma's parents – our second daughter Shirley and husband Alan – used to bring Emma to spend Saturday afternoon with my wife and I. As a toddler, Emma was quite content to play alone in the garden, talking to the neighbours' cat, or marking out play-houses on the lawn with pebbles. However, in the natural scheme of things she became bored with these pastimes as she grew older, and began to seek more stimulating challenges.

One of these was my PC, on which, at the age of ten or thereabouts, Emma would play happily in my study for

In amazement I asked "Emma dear, how on earth did you set that up?"
"I watched how you did it, papa" said Emma.

One evening in mid-March, 2001, Emma complained that she wasn't feeling well and, unusually for her, went to bed without taking her bath. When she showed no sign of improvement the next morning, her mum – always understandably cautious as far as Emma's health was concerned – took her along to Cherry Tree House, the Belfast Childrens' Hospital's superb treatment unit for CF teenagers, where Emma was well known. There she was admitted immediately and put to bed – where, after a few days of rapid deterioration in her condition, she lapsed into a coma and was rushed into intensive care. Ten days later, at 11 a.m. on March 29th 2001, and despite the heroic efforts of many wonderful people, our much-loved granddaughter died without regaining consciousness.

She was six weeks short of her fourteenth birthday.