A PIONEERING operation on a little girl's disfigured face had to be cancelled at the weekend for medical reasons.

Hope Elliott, five, of the Redhouse Estate, Sunderland, who suffers from a rare condition known as cystic lymphovenous malformation, will now undergo surgery in London's Portland Hospital on Thursday.

Her condition means that she has a large build-up of cysts on her face and throat, which restricts her breathing and strangles her facial nerves.

Her parents, Bernadette and Peter, launched an appeal last year to raise the £35,000 needed for the surgery.

The operation will be carried out by reconstructive surgeon Professor Ian Jackson, who became famous for helping to rebuild the face of a Peruvian boy following the screening of a TV documentary called The Boy David.