BRAVE King's Somborne girl, Meg Jones, underwent life-saving surgery in America on Wednesday and is recovering well.

Meg, 21, underwent a pioneering operation to remove a brain tumour and as the Romsey Advertiser went to press, she was awake and responding well in intensive care.

Mum, Helen Bulbeck, said Meg's surgeon, Professor Peter Black, had been like "superman" as he held Meg's hand before the eight-hour operation.

Mrs Bulbeck's husband, Peter, added: "He's a truly lovely man. His personal interest in this case has amazed and delighted us."

The couple, along with Meg's boyfriend, Josh Hill, were updated by staff at Boston Children's Hospital every 90 minutes as surgeons used state-of-the-art techniques to remove Meg's tumour. She is expected to stay in intensive care for one night and then move to another ward.

Boyfriend Josh said: "It was just magic to see a sleepy Meg in intensive care. She talked to us and within a few hours was looking her normal self. She's such a star she'll be better in no time."

Friends and family back in the UK have been keeping track of her progress via her online blog, which has been flooded with messages of good luck.

Jill Mellor, assistant head teacher at The Westgate School where Meg was a pupil, wrote: "You have come on an incredible journey and our thoughts and good wishes are with you and your family. Take care and come back and see us at school when you are feeling fit and well."

Jenny Shackelford, Meg's cousin, wrote: "I just wanted to say the best of luck and I will be thinking of you a lot. You are so wonderfully brave and the biggest shining star."Close friend, Sian Carter, said: "We are all thinking of you and I can't wait for you to get well very soon and come home."

Meg was diagnosed with a brain tumour when she was 18 and her mother set up the Brainstrust charity to help her daughter and other sufferers.

Last summer, the charity raised enough for Meg to have the pioneering operation in Boston, one of only two cities in the world offering the high-tech surgery.

Meg could have had a more basic operation in the UK but its success would have been less assured, so she opted for the US surgery, which uses an intra operative MRI scanner so doctors can see how much of the tumour they are removing.

The operation cost £50,000 and Mrs Bulbeck is working hard to bring the technology and training home for brain tumour patients in the UK.

Meg may be ready to leave hospital on June 10, providing all goes well and will spend a further two to three weeks recovering before she is fit to fly home.

You can read Meg's blog, which has already received more than 2,000 hits, by visiting www.brainstrust.org.uk and clicking on the blog' link.