Quadruple amputee Corinne Hutton has said she is "absolutely elated" with her new hands.

The mother, from Renfrewshire, has been speaking for the first time since her double transplant last week.

The 48-year old described the surgery as life-changing and vowed to "do something wonderful" in honour of the donor's family.

Corinne, who climbed Kilimanjaro five years after losing her hands and feet, told STV News: "I am able to move all my fingers. I have to be held back a bit in case I do too much.

"That has given me a lot of confidence that I can go on and make them do more than is expected of me. I know I am determined. I will push it hard."

Surgeons carried out the complicated 12-hour procedure at Leeds General Infirmary on January 8.

After dozens of false alarms since sepsis claimed her hands and feet in 2013, Corinne said she had given up hope of finding a suitable match.

But a surprise phone call late on January 7 told her hands had been found with her blood group, skin tone and size.

Corinne said: "I had 25 blood transfusions when I had my sepsis so I have 25 sets of antibodies in me that, as I understand it, the donor can't have, so I was always a very hard match.

"I had started to think the transplant wasn't going to happen so I just got on with my life.

"When the call came in, I was completely ill-prepared, my bag wasn't packed and my plans were not in place. It was a real panic."

The team working on the transplant included Professor Simon Kay, who was given an OBE in the New Year Honours , and Professor Andrew Hart from Glasgow, who performed the surgery to remove her hands and lower legs in 2013.

Prof Kay, who led the team, performed the first double hand transplant in the UK in 2016, and Corinne was his sixth procedure.

He said: "Corinne is remarkable. Although we are in the early days of transplantation so we don't know what the life expectancy of her hands is, we have every reason to be believe that it will be good.

"Corinne now faces a long task of rehabilitation but I don't have the slightest anxiety about her ability to cope with that. She will go on improving in her hand function for three years.

"What she will find difficult is that for the first few months, her function will be less good than what it was with her stumps.

"She has to be very careful to protect the hands, she has to be very careful how she uses them. A few steps backwards and then a long leap forward I hope."

Corinne expects to remain in hospital in Leeds for another week before continuing her rehabilitation in Glasgow under the care of Prof Hart and his team.

She said "The stumps that I had were ugly but I'd learned to do quite a lot with them but also with the use of my teeth and my elbows and my stomach.

"My dentist will be delighted I have hands now so I can save my teeth a bit. Two functioning hands really is life changing for me.

"I'll be able to write properly, eat properly, it's just incredible.

"Then there is the emotional side. For five years my son has had to hold my hand. I've not been able to hold his and I just want to do that.

"At ten-years-old, he might not be overly keen at that but he's going to hold my hand whether he likes it or not."

Her son Rory hasn't seen his mum's new hands in person yet, although they have been speaking on video phone.

Corinne said: "I think he'll be stunned. We will both need to hold back our expectations that, although I have hands, they can't do a lot yet.

"I can't drive and I can't look after myself yet so that will be tough for us both. But hopefully if we both see progress, then we will be fine. "

"I'm so grateful to the donor and the family that were so brave in making that decision. I just want to do what I can to help the organ donation system and encourage people to sign up."

Professor Kay too encouraged more people to sign up for organ donation.

He said " You have to remember that a family lost their loved one unexpectedly and made that enormously courageous decision within an hour or two to donate organs including hands.

"The unsung heroes in all of this are that family and that donor and the nurses who have the very difficult job of asking for that donation.

"I have enormous admiration for families that do that and when they see Corinne, I hope they will see what an enormous difference that kind of donation makes."