A Herefordshire woman has returned home following another successful bout of surgery in her battle against cancer.

Helen Boughen is confidently looking to the future and hopes the latest 12-hour operation to reconstruct part of her face will be the last major hurdle.

The 20-year-old, from Pontshill, near Ross-on-Wye, first fell ill three years ago when a large tumour was discovered in her jaw while having a wisdom tooth extracted by the dentist.

Unsuccessful chemotherapy followed before a decision was made to operate.

And although the tumour came away easily, Helen lost her left eye and a number of facial bones and teeth in the tortuous operation.

An initial bone graft to reconstruct her face failed, meaning another trip to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham for this second operation which, to the delight of Helen and her family, was successful.

"The operation has been a success and the graft has taken," said Pauline Boughen, Helen's mum.

"Helen had her post operative check in Birmingham and we are absolutely thrilled to say all was well."

Helen is now relaxing at home and has already enjoyed her familiar surroundings by reading the latest Harry Potter book - twice!

"It's nice to be home and I'm glad to have had the tracheostomy out, because before I had to write down everything I wanted to say.

"Mum and dad have been really supportive, even after getting stuck in the floods on the M5 in two different cars a couple of weeks ago."

Helen is now looking forward to starting a physics degree at Birmingham Conservatoire in October.

The success of the operation is even more remarkable as complications meant Helen spent almost 12 hours in theatre.

"Helen was in theatre for around three hours longer than the first bone graft and was understandably in a lot of pain when she came out, which was distressing for all of us," said Pauline.

Problems arose after surgeons found arteries and veins on her right pelvis to be shorter than they were on her left pelvis - where the graft had been taken from previously.

This meant a vein had to be taken from her lower leg and a redundant artery from her neck to match up with the vein on the graft.

Following this, Helen was out of critical care after just one night.

"This is thought to be because her body was fitter than last time when she was still really weak from the chemotherapy," said Pauline.

Helen has a genetic condition called neurofibrometosis, with which she was diagnosed in May 2002.

She also has Asperger syndrome, a neurobiological disorder marked by autistic-like behaviour.

The next step for Helen, a keen musician who has achieved grade eight piano, is a likely return to theatre to have titanium implants which will enable crowns to be fitted.

"She still has to have her mouth brought down slightly and her nose aligned so it's not the end of the treatment yet, but this bone graft is the biggest hurdle for Helen," Pauline added.