A YOUNG Romanian woman with a severely deformed leg can walk again thanks to the generosity of Oxford surgeons.

Nicoletta Vizi, 19, was abandoned at an orphanage in Romania when she was a child.

It is not known how her leg became so deformed, but it is believed it was badly broken as a youngster to attract sympathy when she was sent to beg on the streets.

She had been waiting for the Romanian government to approve surgery for more than a decade and was repeatedly turned down.

But orthopaedic consultants Rachel Buckingham and Andy Wainwright, who travelled to Romania last year to treat 20 orphans, were so moved by her plight that they vowed to help her.

The pair, from the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, in Headington, were unable to operate on Nicoletta in her home country and so raised enough money to bring her to Oxford for the specialist life-changing surgery.

The pair organised a stationary bike ride, set up in the NOC, so fundraisers could cycle the equivalent distance to Romania, which raised more than £5,000.

Mrs Buckingham said: “When we first met Nicoletta in Romania, her leg was very badly deformed.

“We felt she was a very deserving case.

“She had lived in an institution all her life and had been trying to get her surgery carried out for 10 years, but for various reasons she was turned down again and again.

“We knew the surgery would vastly improve the quality of her life.”

Before surgery the teenager’s leg was badly twisted and she could not straighten it.

She spent more than three hours in surgery while Mrs Buckingham and Mr Wainwright operated, and can now place her foot flat to the ground.

Nicoletta will fly back to Romania at the beginning of September, where she will remain in a plaster cast for six weeks.

She will then require physiotherapy to enable her to gain enough strength in her leg. The treatment is also being paid for through the surgeons’ fund-raising effort.

The surgeons flew out to Romania with the charity Foundation for the Relief of Disabled Orphans (Frodo).

Vanessa Cummings, Frodo chief executive, said: “Thanks to the skill and caring attitude of surgeons Andy Wainwright and Rachel Buckingham, and the whole team at the NOC, Nicoletta’s dream has come true.

“When she first saw her leg in plaster, her straight leg, she burst into tears.

“But they were tears of joy, and since then she has not stopped smiling.

“Her life for the future offers all sorts of new possibilities and this is one girl who is going to take them.

“I must give a huge thanks to all the team at the NOC for their magnificent fund- raising.”