A WOMAN dying of cystic fibrosis spent her last evening telephoning her goodbyes to friends and hospital staff who has nursed her.

Leanne Gunn, 21, died the following morning while being taken by ambulance from her home in Teesville, Redcar, east Cleveland, to hospital.

Sensing that the end of her life was near, Leanne said to her mother, Anita: "It's time for me to go."

She then picked up the phone and made her farewells. Mrs Gunn said Leanne's last wish was to phone her friends.

She said: "She was wishing them well, telling them she loved them and that it was goodbye from her.

"She has been as brave as anything. To pick the phone up like that and say your last goodbye, that's one brave person."

Mrs Gunn said of her daughter, who used a wheelchair: "She had not slept for four nights. She was fighting every day for breath. She wanted to go at the end."

Despite being ill during her teenage years, it was only in the last three years that Leanne -who died a month away from her 22nd birthday -and her brother Barry were diagnosed as suffering from the disease, which attacks the lungs and digestive system.

Leanne will be buried in Eston Cemetery following a funeral service at Eston Methodist Church this afternoon.