Teenager has giant tumour the size of a FOOTBALL removed - PHOTO

Seventeen-year-old Grace, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, would have eventually died if the aggressive bone tumour had continued to grow.The huge tumour was growing from the centre of the jaw bone - formed by cells that usually make the enamel of teeth.Miraculously, Grace was still able to speak and eat but was so self-conscious that she stopped going to school.After local hospitals failed to help, charity hospital Mercy Ships admitted Grace to perform the four-hour surgery to remove the teenager's tumour, lower jaw and teeth.Grace had been suffering from the tumour in her lower jaw for ten years as it gradually increased in size.Together with her mother she went to the local hospital to get help - but doctors remained baffled by her condition and offered no treatment.Grace said: "It started from a little swelling inside and the gums started growing little by little."We went to hospital and they didn't know what it was - they did nothing."Grace's mother Christine was left to watch her daughter suffer and had no idea who to turn to for help.Christine said: "I didn't know what to do - in hospital they just talked a lot but did nothing."Grace said: "I was sick, I was always indoors, I was not happy anymore, I worried all the time."(mirror.co.uk)Bakudaily.Az