KEEN to don her tights and slap her thigh, a teenager postponed important surgery in order to perform on stage.

The brave nursery worker from Wigginton, near York, will take a leading role this pantomime season, despite the effects of an illness which led her to have a major operation.

Though Sian Davies, 18, should have had a second operation last month she delayed it so that she could play the principal male - Peter Pumpkin-eater - in the Rowntree Player's production of Jack and Jill in York.

The former Easingwold School pupil was so ill with ulcerative colitis, or inflammation of the colon, that she had to have her large intestine removed.

Further surgery was plan-ned in October, but it clashed with rehearsals. So she asked for it to be postponed until early next year - a request her surgeon agreed to.

Sian said: "If the operation had all gone to plan I could have still done the panto, but I would have missed the first few weeks of rehearsals, which are really important.

"There was also a risk that I could have had problems after the operation and I didn't want it to set me back at all. This panto was too good an opportunity to miss."

For tickets to the pantomime, at The Joseph Rowntree Theatre between Tuesday and Saturday, December 10 and 14, call (01904) 438518 or (01904) 623568.