WHEN Charles Michael Duke felt dizzy while on stage in a Christmas show, he had no idea that his lung had collapsed.

The actor and singer had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) at birth and says that, growing up, he wasn't aware of it affecting his ability to do anything his friends did.

Once a year he would spend two weeks in hospital on intravenous antibiotics, but he was quite happy to have a bit of time off of school.

But by the age of around 17, his lung function began to seriously deteriorate.

One of the symptoms of CF is that sufferers have thicker and stickier mucus in their lungs, which means that bacteria can be caught and turn into infection.

"I was getting more infections and it was starting to cause lung damage when I got to about 17 to 18," says the 23-year-old.

His medical team at Southampton General Hospital proposed putting him on the waiting list for a lung transplant.

"I'd started researching CF when I was 13 or 14, so I was aware that transplants are common for people with the condition," says Charles.

"I knew children as young as ten had transplants, and some people are in their 30s with their birth lungs. I felt the team talked to me about it sooner that I'd expected but they made it clear to me that there was no other option."

Charles knew that without a transplant, his condition would probably be fatal. The assessment process was started but then Charles health took a sudden turn for the worse when he was on stage in a Christmas Spectacular show at the Regent Centre in Christchurch in 2014.

"I felt a bit woozy," says Charles, who lives in Highcliffe.

"I have diabetes so I went off and had something to eat in the interval, but I couldn't go back on for the second half, so the understudy had to take over.

"I went to hospital the next day, and they said I had a collapsed lung.

"That was a turning point for me. I'd known I needed a lung transplant to live long term, but I also needed one to live the way I wanted to. Everything stopped overnight: my hobby, my career plans, my social circle. That was hard to accept and it was a frightening and dark time."

Charles was admitted on Christmas Eve and spent 28 days at Southampton General Hospital.

Three months later he went through his second set of assessments for a lung transplant and was placed on the waiting list.

"At that point, it was a relief," he says.

"If I'd have been put on the list after the first assessment, I wouldn't have been ready. But on some level, I felt excited about the prospect of getting back to normal life. I knew that transplants carry risks, but I had every faith in the NHS and the surgeons."

Charles began a routine of spending two weeks in hospital and two weeks at home, in order to maintain his health so that he could have a transplant.

"There is a window with a transplant – you have to be ill enough to need one, but well enough to have it done," says Charles.

"I had that routine for three and a half years. My career as a performer had been starting but that had to be put to one side. I did stay involved in theatre, for instance directing a show, but my main priority had to be my health.

"My mum said 'your job is to keep yourself well'."

Charles' health then took a knock when, at Christmas last year he caught flu, and took five to six months to get over it.

He was confined to a wheelchair and on oxygen.

"It was a bit scary, but I didn't realise how ill I'd been until I began to recover."

While Charles was at this low point, and missing the theatre, he came up with the idea of writing a pantomime.

He contacted his friend, Stephen Hutt, who lives in the States, to see if they could write a new pantomime together.

Charles is a long-standing member of Highcliffe Charity Players, who perform the annual New Year Pantomime at the Regent Centre, so he already knew that the company planned to perform Cinderella in January 2019.

The pair submitted the script and had to wait to see if it was chosen.

In the meantime, Charles got the call to say that he was going to have his transplant. He had had two calls before, which hadn't worked out, so he tried to remain calm as he was blue-lighted from Southampton to hospital in London for the surgery in May.

"It wasn't until I woke up after the surgery that I really believed it," he says.

"I've been very lucky. I was out of hospital after 16 days, which was bizarre as it's just a bit longer than I'd be in hospital routinely, but this time I had a new pair of lungs."

Charles says that he is hugely grateful to his donor and their family for giving him another chance at life.

"I know some people who have transplants feel guilty but I think you have to view it the right way," he adds.

"That person didn't die so that you could live. They died, and the transplant is something positive that has come from their death. They chose to sign up to the donor register and to tell their family and their family chose to go ahead with it, so I am just very grateful."

Charles' health is now going from strength to strength.

And shortly after he had had his surgery, he was given some more good news – that his and Stephen's script had been chosen as the Highcliffe Charity Players' panto.

The news helped Charles’ recovery but he knew that he had to get himself up and about in order to enter the open auditions to have a chance of performing in his own panto.

The auditions were scheduled to take place barely three months after his major surgery!

To his absolute delight, Charles was been selected for the pivotal principal role of Buttons. After all he has been through, it is a dream come true, having the chance to perform again in such a sparkling role.

He has learned to take nothing for granted in life and his good fortune in having a loving family and friends who have helped see him through the darkest hours of a condition that threatens both the lungs and the digestive system in such a destructive fashion, has inspired Charles to devote himself to helping others in a similar situation.

He now spends much of his time raising awareness for CF and organ donations.

He has appeared on national television, including ITV's Loose Women, and will be on our screens again on Thursday in new BBC1 show This is My Song, in which ordinary people step into the recording studio to record a song that's important to them.

Appearing on Loose Women was a real highlight for Charles. They wanted him to help kick start the organ donation campaign that became ‘DonateMate.’ Within an hour of the programme airing, over 1700 people had signed the register to donate organs.

The only downside to Charles' better health is that he misses the CF team at Southampton General Hospital, who he spent so much time with, and many of whom became his friends.

"Knowing I won't see them anymore is quite sad," he says.

"I am so grateful for the treatment I received – it was amazing. It never felt as if anything was too much for them. They are just one example of the amazing things that people are doing in hospitals in this country."

Hopefully Charles may spot some of his old care team in the audience of his panto, when it comes to Christchurch next month.

"I can't wait," he says.

"It's been my main motivation throughout this whole thing – to get back on stage. It would have been really hard to have watched the show knowing I was well enough to take part if I hadn't landed a role.

"I had a little blip after my surgery when I stated to panic about having to do something with my life now, having spent so long thinking about what I wanted to do when I was ill.

"I'd been imagining it all, now I have to do it! But I feel so much healthier that it's hard to get down.

"I feel amazing now."

* Cinderella by the Highcliffe Charity Players is at the Regent Centre, Christchurch, from January 19 to 26.