A mother who felt forced to take her toddler abroad for surgery after being told by UK doctors that they would not operate on her son’s facial disfigurement has said other parents should not feel powerless.

Hayley Springham, 25, of Howberry Green in Arlesey contacted an American doctor who travelled to Germany to remove a haemangioma from her son’s nose, after doctors at Bedford and Great Ormond Street hospitals said they would not operate until he was older.

Kian, who will be two in November, was first diagnosed with the condition which creates a swelling or growth of blood vessels, when he was two weeks old.

Hayley said: “It grew rapidly and caused disfigurement to his face. UK doctors told us they would not perform surgery until he was school age. I wasn’t happy to let him go to school like that.

“When Kian was first diagnosed I’d done research and had come across this surgeon in New York. I had kept him in the back of my mind. When the doctors here said they would not operate I contacted him.”

Hayley and her partner Jay Stimpson, 27, travelled to Germany for the operation in August and Kian is now recovering at home. “He looks amazing now! He’s really doing well,” Hayley said.

The �10,000 cost of the operation was raised by family and friends as well as “selling off our old junk” Hayley said.

“It all happened really quickly – we had two months to raise the money. But you just do it don’t you? We want to thank everyone who helped us make it financially possible.”

She said she wanted to make parents aware there is another option to waiting. “We would like other people to be aware of this amazing miracle doctor who has changed all are lives,” adding: “Parents are not powerless, they have a choice.”