Snejana is delighted as surgeon removes birthmark from arm

SURGERY on a Moldovan girl in Exeter has been completed successfully.

As reported in the Echo, the city's Christian Response charity paid for 16-year-old Snejana Muhamadeev to fly to the UK to receive treatment to remove a growth on her forearm.

Consultant plastic surgeon John Palmer, at Nuffield Hospital, removed the birthmark, considered "unacceptable" in her home community, free of charge, on Thursday.

The operation took around an hour, during which Snejana was put under general anaesthetic. But she was free to leave the hospital the same day.

Having never set foot in a hospital before, Snejana was anxious, about the operation. Through a translator, she said: "I was originally terrified as I didn't know what to expect and I imagined knives and needles. But the Nuffield was nothing like what I had expected, it was beautiful inside.

"All the medical staff made me feel very welcome, and the nurses were constantly visiting me at my bedside to make sure that I was okay.

"The surgery felt like it was over very quickly, and I was not in a lot of pain afterwards. I will have to go back next week to have the dressing re-done."

The removal of the growth is set to make a big difference for Snejana in her life back in Moldova.

She said: "The majority of people ridiculed me about the growth. People at school could be especially cruel. But now that it has been removed, it will change my life."

Snejana and her Moldovan translator Mariana Dabija, 27, have been staying with local GP Dr John Perkins and his family.

They are in England for 10 days and have been enjoying some of the local sights.

Snejana said: "I had never seen the sea before in Moldova, so we have been going to the seaside lots. I have been collecting shells for my sisters.

"I like embroidery so we are going shopping in Exeter at the weekend.

"I also love having warm showers as at home I have to collect wash water from a well."

Snejana lives with her mother, father and five siblings in a small village in the east of Moldova.

She has been working on a tomato farm to earn extra money.

Hugh Scudder, of Christian Response in Exeter, said: "Snejana has never left Moldova before so has found the whole experience of coming to England very exciting.

"The operation went really well and staff at the Nuffield were brilliant.

"We can't thank them enough. Snejana's life has changed immensely for the better."

For more information about Christian Response, visit its website www. christianresponse.org.uk.