A BRAVE youngster who missed out the trip of a lifetime has finally got the present of her dreams -- a new eye.

Kirsty Gill had to undergo an operation to have her right eye removed in November.

The 12-year-old's sight deteriorated as she grew up after she contracted an eye infection as a toddler which developed into cataracts. Eventually she became blind in the eye.

Kirsty, of School Hill, Bolton, was born premature at 24 weeks old.

Her mother, Karen Ahmed, had already suffered an ectopic pregnancy, had a stillborn baby girl and lost a baby boy aged just four and a half hours old. Her daughters Kayleigh and Chantelle were also born premature, but survived and are now perfectly healthy.

Kirsty, a pupil as Woodside School, Chorley New Road, was born with cerebral palsy and weighed only one pound and seven ounces.

She had to spend the first five months of her life in hospital and when she returned home, her mother had to dress her in dolls clothes.

The youngster spent the first three years of her life in and out of hospital suffering from potentially fatal chest infections before contracting the eye infection.

Kirsty was keen to have the eye removed because she was in so much pain, but undergoing the operation meant missing out on a VIP trip to Lapland with a group of deserving Bolton youngsters.

She has had to wear a patch since November, but was thrilled to have a special artificial eye fitted this week at a private hospital in Cheshire.

The eye has been specially moulded for Kirsty and is almost identical to her healthy eye in shape and colour.

Her mother said: "She has been really brave about the whole thing.

"Kirsty was gutted not to go to Lapland, but she really wanted to get the operation over and done with."

She added: "The eye is brilliant. She is already used to coping with just one eye and now she looks like all her friends at school."