Real life Fault In Our Stars couple die within days of each other after fighting cystic fibrosis

A YOUNG couple who bonded over their struggles living with cystic fibrosis have died within days of each other.

Katie Prager, 26, died on Thursday, with the young woman passing away from complications of the disease just five days after her husband Dalton Prager died.

The couple, who met through Facebook, married in 2011.

Their love had been compared to John Green's novel "The Fault In Our Stars", which tells the fictional story of two young people who find love during their cancer diagnoses.

Katie's mother Debbie confirmed the heart-breaking news on Facebook, writing: "I truly believe Dalton had prepared a place for his wife".

The couple had been forced to live in separate states in the US with doctors warning that Dalton could pass a highly-infectious disease to Katie.

But Katie was with her husband, 25, until the end, communicating with him on FaceTime in the hours before he died.

The young man died on Saturday at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St Louis while Katie had been in a hospice in Kentucky.

Katie's mother Debbie said her daughter had struggled seeing her husband die, but that his love had given the young woman strength.

She wrote: "I know Dalton was waiting with open arms, as well as both her grandmother's and a host of family and friends that have gone before her."