FOLLOWING A HUGELY successful fund-raising drive, a seven-year-old girl from Cork is travelling to the United States for life changing surgery to tackle her cerebral palsy.

Anna Browne from Mallow set off for St Louis, Missouri, from Shannon Airport this morning accompanied by her family.

Anna’s condition has continually deteriorated since she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and Cortical Visual Impairment last year.

She lives in constant pain, relies on crutches and a wheelchair to get around and has to do stretches for more than half an hour to get out of bed in the morning.

On Tuesday she is set to undergo a form of brain surgery that aims to destroy the problematic nerve roots in her spinal cord which are causing the spasticity in her lower limbs.

Without the surgery she would have eventually lost all of her mobility.

Over the last year a major fundraising campaign successfully raised more than €100,000 to cover the cost of the operation, travel to St Louis and follow-up treatments.

Speaking from Shannon Airport on C103’s Cork Today Show this morning, Anna’s mother Evelyn said her daughter is aware of what she is facing in the coming days but she is still excited.

“She was a bit upset last night but she’s excited today with all the excitement in the airport,” Evelyn said.

Could I just say a huge thanks to everybody, honest to god, without the people of Cork, Mallow, Reen, Mouneabbey, Clyda, everywhere, we couldn’t have done it. So thanks a million.