A CATFORD toddler with a life-threatening disease has been given new hope she may live well into adulthood.

Lauren Green, three, has cystic fibrosis and her mother, Joanne, is busy raising funds for new research which could find a cure for the condition.

Lauren, who has just started play school, lives a normal life at the family home in Winterstoke Road her life expectancy is currently just 31 years.

She was diagnosed with the disease when she was two-and-a-half weeks old after being born with a perforated bowel.

Now she has physiotherapy twice a day and takes special enzymes every time she eats.

Joanne, 31, is a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, a charity which funds research into the condition in the hope of finding possible treatments and, ultimately, a cure.

The faulty gene which causes cystic fibrosis was identified in 1989 and scientists are currently working on gene therapy, which could eventually provide a complete cure for sufferers.

Joanne said: "It is obviously a cause which is close to my heart.

"As yet, there is no cure for cystic fibrosis but, with enough money for research, we could see a cure within the next five years.

"The problem is that, understandably, most money is directed into research into more common conditions, like heart disease.

"My daughter is well in herself at the moment but I want to give her the best possible chance of a normal future."

Joanne is currently organising a 60s and 70s-theme dance, to be held at the Rivoli Ballroom, Brockley, on February 22.

For more information about the event, call her on 020 8464 7211.

Cystic fibrosis affects more than 7,500 babies, children and young adults in the UK.

Symptoms can include poor weight gain, problem coughs, salty sweat and abnormal stools.

It is a genetic disease which clogs the organs, especially the lungs and pancreas, with thick, sticky mucus.

Until the 1930s, the life expectancy of a baby with the disease was only a few months. Today, it is closer to 31 years.

January 28, 2003 10:30