A teenager has turned down the chance of a life-saving operation.

But Liam Gawthorpe insists he has made the right choice – even though doctors say he may have only months to live.

It is hard for his parents, Sharon and Neil Gawthorpe, who each morning check on their son in their Liversedge home, to listen for a sign he is still alive.

Liam, 18, who suffers from a congenital heart defect and pulmonary hypertension, has twice turned down a heart and double lung transplant – and now doctors say he has only months, if not days, to live.

“We wake up every day and one of us has to go into his bedroom and check if he’s still alive,” says dad Neil.

“Me, his mum and his two brothers all do it. Even our Labrador goes in and licks him awake.

“It’s like the whole world lifts from my shoulders that second I see him breathing. I get that warm tingly feeling inside.

“Every day really is a bonus to us because we don’t know how many of them we have left. But I am so proud of him and his decision.”

Liam first rejected the offer of a transplant aged 11 and last week he refused it again, telling his heart specialist: “I’m sorry, no is my answer again. All I want to do is get on with it.”

Explaining his remarkable choice, Liam says: “I’ve seen a lot of my friends have this operation and they’re gone now – while I’m still here.

“That’s hard. My family understand my decision.

“My body’s broken but it’s working – why mess with it? I just take it in my stride and try to live life to the full.

“No matter what health issues you have, you should make the most of what you have now.”

Liam’s parents first discovered he was ill when he lost 6lb of his birth weight in the first three months of his life.

The couple – also parents to Sean, 13, and 10-year-old Ethan – were told by doctors at Leeds General Infirmary that Liam only had three instead of four chambers in his heart and that the organ was back to front.

But the seriousness of his condition did not hit home until he turned nine.

Doctors explained that the pressure in his heart was reaching dangerously high levels and Liam was referred to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Pet shop owner Neil says: “It was only when we had to spend four and a half weeks down in London that it hit us. That really pushed us to the limit.”

Six days before his 16th birthday he was rushed to hospital with migraine and vomiting – and doctors discovered a huge abscess on his brain.

It took six and a half hours for surgeons to remove fluid from the abscess, but when they tried to remove the abscess itself, his brain started bleeding.

“It was a blow from nowhere – we thought all we had to deal with was the heart and lung problem but this hit us hard,” says Neil, 41.

Liam was up and walking on his 16th birthday but suffered short-term memory loss as a result.

And in the past two years doctors have discovered that the valves in his heart are leaking.

He has no regrets over his decision.

“I feel stronger about it now than I did when I was 11. I have lost a lot of friends since then. They’ve had the operation and all died within five years,” he said.

Liam joined his dad in the family pet business, opening a stall at Heckmondwike Market – and in February the business, Hecky Pets, moved into a store in the town.

Liam wants the business to be a legacy for his younger brothers.

He says: “If they find it difficult to find work when they leave school, like I did, I want them to have the shop to come to.”