A woman given just months to live unless she could raise £180,000 for an operation only available in America is in recovery back at home in Sutton Coldfield, with doctors saying the surgery was a success.
And the cherry on the cake? It was just in time for her birthday.
Mother-of-two Jessica Kill, who turned 39 this week, is now able to walk and talk properly again, eat and swallow freely, and is no longer in the same agonising pain.
Ms Kill was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) more than 10 years ago – a rare hereditary condition which affects the body’s supply of collagen, leaving ligaments ‘stretchy’, and means her body cannot properly control her heart rate, blood pressure or temperature.
But until the end of last year, she had been coping, holding down a full-time job as a project manager and looking after her two young sons.