Teenager Lesley Partlett has a message of hope for the family of little Nepalese girl Samjhana who needs a major operation on her jaw.

"It will change her life," said Lesley, 14, who lives with her parents Stan and Julie and eight-year-old brother Thomas in Pinsley Road, Long Hanborough.

Lesley knows just what she is talking about. She suffers from a similar jaw condition and has had two major operations - at one point she could barely manage to eat as she was hardly able to open her mouth. Witney man John Fox is raising money to bring Samjhana to England for treatment after meeting her family while trekking in Nepal.

The appeal to raise £12,000 to bring the little girl and her father to England has already topped the half-way mark.

When Lesley and her family read about the appeal in the Oxford Mail's sister paper, the Witney Gazette, they contacted John. Lesley is writing to the family - and hopes to meet Samjhana and her father Mutki when they come to this country. Her two operations have involved taking a piece of rib to attach to her jaw and moving a muscle in her face. They have transformed her from a self-conscious girl unwilling to go out to a pretty, confident and bubbly person.

She still faces more surgery to remove some of her teeth and fit a brace and she still has to do exercises every day to make sure the gap does not close up again.

The family first realised something was wrong when Lesley started having difficulty cleaning her teeth when she was three.

Mum Julie said: "We took her to the dentist and she was referred to hospital. At one point she could only open her mouth two millimetres, she was very thin and we were very worried as she had difficulty breathing." Lesley had her first operation when she was nine to remove a rib and rebuild her jaw. She spent a week in Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, some of it in intensive care.

The second operation took place just over a year ago when a muscle was moved in her face.

Lesley, a pupil at Eynsham's Bartholomew School, said: "My surgeon Dr Carls was brilliant. It is quite an unusual operation. I believe he has only done two like it and the other one was on a girl from the Isle of Wight.

"Before I found it very difficult to eat. I always used to dream about managing a Magnum ice cream but it always use to melt before I could finish it. I felt self-conscious and did not want to go out with my friends." Julie said: "I do so hope John manages to raise enough money to bring the little girl over. We really feel sympathy for her family and we would like to meet them so they can see what a success the operations have been."

Lesley said: "I am writing to the family and sending them some photographs of me before and after the operation."

John said: "Looking at Lesley you can see the operation totally changed her life. She jokes she can now poke her tongue out. This is what we want for little Sam."

John is running a raffle at his Natural Health Clinic in Corn Street and is planning other fundraising events.

Story date: Wednesday 17 November

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