LIKE most other children of her age, Katie Meehan is enjoying a magical Christmas, but the brave six-year-old and her family know that another major trauma is only weeks away.

Katie, from South Shields, South Tyneside, has a condition called cystic hygroma, which causes her face and tongue to swell.

The dangers associated with the condition were illustrated only last month when Katie and her family were on their way to London.

She was heading for a consultation with renowned surgeon Professor Ian Jackson, who has already performed two successful operations on the youngster, when she became unwell.

Illness is something her mother, Dawn, dreads, because even a cold can cause Katie's face to swell alarmingly.

Mrs Meehan said: "On the way down we thought she was coming down with a cold and her face started growing and growing quite quickly. Within two hours her eye had started closing.

"When we got to see Professor Jackson he straight away told us to get her to hospital to get some antibiotics into her because he thought she had an infection.

"We ran over to Guy's Hospital, they took a look at her and kept her in for five days."

Katie suffered an allergic reaction to an antibiotic and was quite ill, but made a full recovery.

She is expecting to go to London again in March, this time for further surgery.

Katie had her first operation in March last year, made possible thanks to a massive fundraising campaign in her home town.

Prof Jackson, famous for operating on the disfigured Peruvian boy David, cut out part of Katie's tongue and removed a mass of cysts.

A second operation, to further reduce the tongue, was performed this year.

Although successful, it led to another lengthy stay in hospital when a wound opened up after Katie accidentally removed a tube which drained fluid from her face.

Mrs Meehan says she expects Katie will have to undergo another operation in each of the next four years.

She said: "Katie does say thing like 'I wish I was normal' or 'I wish I was like you' and 'I wish I didn't have to have operations', but she knows she has to.

"I keep telling her she is lucky because she has got the best surgeon in the world."

Despite her problems, Katie is a normal, happy-go-lucky girl who has lots of friends, especially at the Jarrow school where she recently took part in the nativity play.

Mrs Meehan said: "She is a very loving little character. She always wants to please me and please her teachers."