ANITA Wilhelms suffered with a painful lung disease for ten years. But as her illness worsened she clung on to life before dying on the morning of her wedding anniversary.

Her husband Christian, of George Street, York, told today of his pain at losing his "sunshine" minutes before he reached her hospital bed.

Anita, 29, had lived with lung fibrosis for 11 years but she contracted an infection last November and her condition deteriorated until she died in York Hospital on October 15.

Christian, 44, said: "She talked of reaching our silver wedding anniversary; she thought it was achievable even though it was 19 years away. But it was not to be.

"She was fighting for eight days and she clung on until our sixth wedding anniversary and then she let go."

Christian described visiting Anita, who he said remained optimistic, at hospital the night before her death. The next morning he received an urgent call from nurses.

He said: "When I was going to the hospital I was slowly realising how serious this call could be. I just found the tears coming for no real reason, because it had sunk in."

Anita was diagnosed with lung fibrosis when she was 18.

The disease involves scarring of the lung, which causes an irreversible loss of the tissue's ability to transfer oxygen into the bloodstream.

It was unknown when it had developed.

She held out the hope of receiving a double lung transplant after she passed an assessment in July at the Freeman Hospital, in Newcastle.

Just a week before her death, the couple were told a donor was available but the lungs were eventually found to be unsuitable.

Christian said: "I think she thought 'I'm not having the hassle anymore.' She made up her mind that she was not fighting for herself anymore; she was fighting for her friends and family.

"We are now the remembering ones, we are the grieving ones, and that was something she never wanted. But she could only take so much."

The couple, both from Berlin, met in Germany seven years ago. They decided to move to York and married on October 15, 1999, at York Registrer Office.

Anita, who worked with children in the city council's respite care homes, developed anorexia as her treatment intensified and she was prescribed heavy doses of steroids.

Her funeral was held two weeks ago, but Christian will travel to Germany for a separate ceremony and burial.

He said: "She was like sunshine. She was always smiling and hardly every complained.

"It was only in very private moments with Anita that she would just let go a little bit but she would always hold herself together for other people.

"I have learned so much through the marriage.

She showed me I do not have to live for material things because there is so much more than that."

Anita's friends and family are now raising cash for a new ventilator machine for the York Hospital lung ward, where she received specialist care for years.

Updated: 10:02 Monday, November 14, 2005