FIVE years is a long time to be looking for a job- and for a 29-year-old from Ross-on-Wye she cannot help but feel she hasn't found one because of the way she looks.

Helen Boughen graduated with a physics degree in 2011 and has since been looking and applying for jobs every week.

She has applied for many different jobs all over the country and even though she gets interviews, she never lands the role.

Helen was diagnosed with a facial tumour in 2004, when she was just 17, and has had to undergo around 15 sessions of facial reconstructive surgery.

Her mum, Pauline, from Pontshill believes that Helen's appearance has stopped potential employers giving her a job.

Pauline said: "She is very determined and just gets on with it. She carries on trying. It is only recently she has now started to say, I think it is because of the way I look.

"She is just Helen. She goes to people and chats to them and doesn't think they are going to react differently to her. She carries on chatting, as you would do, and certain people can't cope with that. It is really sad"

Helen lives independently and volunteers in charity shops while she is looking for a job.

And Pauline said it is within the last couple of months that Helen has started to get depressed.

Pauline said: "One of the interviews, I thought was personal, and I emailed the man that had done it. He did have the gumption to phone me up and apologise because he knew why he said what he said."

Helen has Asperger's, which is part of having Neurofibromatosis, which caused the cancer in the first place.

Pauline said: "She really believes that there is a job out there for her and because she has a physics degree, is excellent at maths, and because of the Asperger's, has a memory for facts and figures.

"She would love to do some sort of research job that asks for precision although she is willing to try anything that she is physically able to cope with."

Pauline, who also has two other children called Duncan, 28, and Frances, 25, said even the job centre has asked Helen to consider removing herself from jobseeker's allowance after five years of trying.

Unfortunately, on top of all this Pauline's husband, Colin, was diagnosed with bowel and bladder cancer and has just been through a gruelling course of chemotherapy.

Pauline added: "She just needs a break. She has had so many awful things happen."