This is a very important day for a Clonakilty girl whose face was badly disfigured by burns suffered when she was nine months old.
Denise Lehane (13) will undergo surgery in a hospital in New York today thanks to a chance encounter with an American plastic surgeon who met her when she was participating recently in the Irish-American Youth Team sports competition in New York.
Denise won seven gold medals at the event.
The anonymous surgeon was at the games and told her he could reconstruct her face.
Last week she travelled with her mother, Mrs Teresa Lehane, to New York, and today the first phase of surgery begins. The entire reconstruction process may take four years.
Denise was overjoyed when approached by the surgeon and has told her father, Mr P.J. Lehane, that she is looking forward to having eyebrows again and to being confident about herself.
Despite the generosity of the surgeon, it will take several costly trips to New York, as well as living there for weeks at a time, for the treatment to be completed. Sponsors, who also wish to remain anonymous, have already come forward to help cover expenses.