"IT doesn't come naturally to me, this type of PR and press stuff," says York GP Aaron Brown.

But as a cystic fibrosis sufferer, Dr Brown knows his profession gives him a great opportunity to encourage others with the condition and raise awareness.

The 31-year-old, from Wilberfoss, came to prominence in 2011 when he became the first person with the disease to join the Royal College of Surgeons.

Five years later and now a partner at Clifton Medical Practice, Dr Brown is continuing to defy the odds.

He was not expected to survive beyond 30 after being diagnosed with CF, which clogs up sufferer's lungs and digestive systems with mucus, as a baby.

But Dr Brown, whose Twitter handle is @DoctorCF, became a father himself at the end of last year when fiancée Ellie Skingle gave birth to their son Arthur.

With Ellie's waters having broken in B&Q's Hull Road, York store, Arthur's arrival saw the couple photographed on the front page of The Press (below).

York Press:

Dr Brown, a member of York's Local Medical Committees (LMC), also recently spoke out about why he and other GPs could quit the NHS unless their work is better resourced.

While he is far from a media personality, he is a keen supporter of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and takes every opportunity to spread a message of hope about CF.

Indeed, he says having the disease helps him care for his patients.

"It gives me a lot of empathy," he said. "I am somebody who has to take upwards of 14 or 15 tablets a day.

"I probably have a bit more compassion when patients don't manage to follow the complicated treatment plans you set for them."

Recently an organ donation charity shared an interview Dr Brown had given to the BBC in 2011 after joining the Royal College of Surgeons.

"That prompted a message from someone I didn't even know," he said.

That message included these words: "My 20 month old son has CF and seeing stories like yours just brightens up our world and supports the way we want to encourage our son to live his life".

Dr Brown said: "If I put myself in the position of a parents whose child has just had this terrible diagnosis, you put CF into Google and it's all doom and gloom.

"I think it is good to tell the positive side of the story."

Part of Dr Brown's hope comes from a recent drug breakthrough, which uses combination therapy to treat CF.

The Cystic Fibrosis Trust website puts it like this: "A combination therapy is a treatment that uses two drugs or therapies to target a health condition.

"A combination of lumacaftor and ivacaftor has been proven in a recent phase III trial to increase lung function in people with cystic fibrosis over 12 years old, who have two copies of the F508del mutation."

Dr Brown said the treatment costs £16,000 a month at the moment, which makes it difficult to fund, but it has great potential.

He said: "Until these new drugs come out, we will all have to take 15 tablets a day, have nebulisers and physio, but it is worth it in the long run.

"It is exciting because these are the first drugs in 25 years that really look like having an impact.

"It's just about trying to live as normal a life as anyone else."

Dr Brown fits the medication and physio around his busy work and family life and is clearly very determined.

On January 1, he became a partner at Clifton Medical Practice, which will soon be expanding.

He said: "We are merging with Petergate Surgery and York Medical Group in July to become the second largest GP surgery in York.

"We will have 44,000 patients."

Dr Brown is pursuing a career he has sought since he was a sixth former in Leeds.

He said: "It just kind of clicked and I went to study in York."

Fatherhood is a new challenge for the GP.

Describing Arthur's birth, Dr Brown said at the time: “We got into the car and headed off to our local B&Q and once there started looking for the shelves we wanted.

"What started out as a pretty uneventful day changed as Ellie turned to me halfway through the aisle and said: ‘Oh no, I think something’s happened’.

"I immediately replied ‘What, are you all right?’ She said: ‘I think my waters have broken’.

"We then both realised they definitely had, right there in the store.

"My immediate concern was to ensure she was okay and safe and to escort her to the tills, where we promptly paid for the shelves and made a dash to the car.

“She was being very British about it all, not uttering a word and quickly leaving the store.

“We then went straight over to the hospital where, after a fairly tricky labour, our baby boy, Arthur, was finally born the next day”.

Reflecting now, he said: "I don't think anyone could ever prepare you for it.

"It has been a whirlwind of emotions, but it's settled down a bit now."

FACTFILE

- Cystic fibrosis (CF), which is caused by a single defective gene, is one of the UK’s most common life-threatening inherited diseases.

 -The internal organs, especially the lungs and digestive system, become clogged with thick sticky mucus resulting in chronic infections and inflammation in the lungs and difficulty digesting food.

- Around 8,500 people in the UK have CF – and one in every 2,500 babies born.

- One person in 25 carries the faulty CF gene, usually without knowing – more than two million people in the UK have it.

- If two people who carry the gene have a baby, the child has a one-in- four chance of having CF. The disease is not contagious and can only be caused by inheriting two copies of the faulty gene from parents who are both carriers.

- There is no cure, and only half of those living with CF are likely to live past their late 30s.