THE mother of baby who was born with her brain outside her skull hopes consultants at the John Radcliffe Hospital can perform surgery to save her daughter’s life.

May Rose Gibney was born on March 9 with a rare condition which meant her brain developed at the back of her head.

Medics told mother Analee Gibney, 24, that there was nothing they could do for her daughter - but the tiny fighter is battling on more than at eight weeks later.

Baby May Rose suffers from the rare brain condition called Encephalocele, a form of Spina bifida, caused when neural tube - the structure that forms the brain and the spinal cord - does not close properly.

Now her mother, who lived in Blackbird Leys for five years before she moved to Mo, Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland, is refusing to give up hope and is organising fundraising events in Oxford with cousins Claire Flynn, 35, from Blackbird Leys and Charlotte Flynn, 38, from Barton.

The family will attend the John Radcliffe Hospital in Headington to see a consultant on Thursday as they plan to use money raised for private consultations with neurosurgery specialists across the country and abroad to find out if anything more can be done.

Miss Gibney told the Oxford Mail she had only heard her daughter cry when she was born.

The 24-year-old was given the diagnosis of her first child at 20-weeks and was told it was likely her baby would be stillborn.

She said: “They said she would not make it, they told me she would be stillborn but she came out crying. That’s the first time and last time, she doesn’t cry.”

Miss Gibney said she felt as the hospital staff in Belfast ‘basically left her to die’ by sending her home. She added: “The time they have given us is a few months. She was eight weeks on Thursday and to me, everyday I see she is doing things a normal eight-week baby would do apart from cry.

“I’m just going day by day, I was so overwhelmed to hear her cry when she was born. To me she is fighting and getting stronger.”

Miss Gibney said she ‘felt quite angry’ that doctors had told her nothing could be done and said she would travel the country and the world to get second and third opinions. She said she heard in Boston, USA, neurosurgeons had conducted operations on other babies with the condition.

She added: “I won’t just give up hope. It’s worth a shot.”

Charlotte Flynn, of Stowford Road, Barton, said she was currently planning fundraisers for money to be used on private consultations and an operation for May Rose if one goes ahead.

So far more than £4,200 has been raised through a fundraising page.

To donate: gofundme.com/encephalocele-on-the-brain