A CYSTIC Fibrosis sufferer believes a cure for the condition may be found in her lifetime after funding for new research was approved.

Sophie Longton, 25, was diagnosed with CF, the UK’s most common life-threatening inherited disease, at the age of eight.

It is caused by a defective gene that clogs the internal organs, especially the lungs and digestive system, with thick sticky mucus, leading to chronic infections and difficulty digesting food.

Currently there is no cure for CF.

Three people die from the disease each week and the average life expectancy of a sufferer is 37.

Sophie, of Woodhead Road, Read, interviewed scientists working with human DNA to treat diseases when she took part in an episode of the BBC documentary Horizon.

However, the UK Gene Therapy Consortium was unable to continue its research unless it could find nearly £6million.

The academic mentor at Mount Carmel High School, Accrington, raised around £2,300 when she ran a half marathon with a group of friends, contributing to £2.3million generated by fundraisers.

And now the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for Health Research have awarded £3.1million to the consortium.

Sophie said: “The fact that at one point this wasn’t going to go ahead was devastating.

“Now I do believe a cure will come. It will take time, but it’s very exciting.”

“I just hope it becomes a reality.”

Starting in May, around 130 CF patients will receive monthly doses of a healthy CF gene or a placebo over a one year period. The results should be known in 2014.

The clinical trial, led by Imperial College London, will evaluate whether delivering this therapy can improve lung function and reduce the amount of mucus, inflammation and infection.

There will also be a second £1.2million, University of Oxford lab-based study, funded directly by the MRC.

This will investigate a more advanced version of the therapy, using a modified virus to carry the replacement gene into the lungs.

Meanwhile, Sophie has been taking a course of intravenous antibiotics as she prepares to start a new life in Australia next week with her boyfriend Ryan Worthington, 23.

But unlike two years ago, when she made national headlines after her medication ran out when she became stranded on holiday in Malaysia, she is well prepared for the trip.

She said: “My lungs have completely cleared up and I’m as healthy as I’ve ever been.

“I’m taking so much medication that I’m leaving nothing to chance!”

One of Sophie's best friends, Tamsin Ridgwell, who ran the half marathon with her last year, is now running the London Marathon 2012 to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

You can support her fundraising efforts here: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/TamsinRidgwell