Ananova:

The battle to raise the £250,000 needed to send a teenager to America for a life saving operation is gathering speed.

Joanne Harris's friend - and Big Brother winner - Craig Phillips has now donated his prize £70,000 to the cause as he promised.

Meanwhile an internet holiday company has promised to fly Craig and Joanne to the United States so that she can have a heart and lung transplant, Travel firm ebookers.com also promised to let Craig cash in the £3,000 Mount Everest trip he won for the operation.

Ebookers spokeswoman Jennifer Evans said: "We haven't spoken to Craig yet but we are pretty sure he will take us up on our offer. And he still won't miss out on a holiday because we will send him somewhere else.

"We are also going to post a note on the website to our 500,000 subscribers and ask them to send us any currency they have left from their travels. We will then change it into sterling and put it towards Joanne's fund."

Shropshire-based builder Craig made his pledge to help Joanne after emerging victorious from the Big Brother house on Friday night.

Joanne, who is his best friend's cousin, cannot get a place in Britain on the waiting list for the operation because of her disability.

But Craig, 28, who has been campaigning for years on Joanne's behalf, said he would do any charitable work he could to raise the money so that she could go to the United States for the vital operation.

Joanne's mother Marion told the Sunday People: "We just love Craig so much for what he's done for us. He is Jo's lifeline. I cannot thank him enough."

The Big Brother final proved a ratings hit for Channel 4, with a peak of 8.2 million people tuning in for the 8.30-9.30pm show and a peak of 10 million viewers for the 10.30-11.30pm show, bagging it 56.5% of the audience share.