Desperately-ill Lily Cater has been given a new chance at life after surviving major open heart surgery.

The two-year-old, who suffers from a rare heart condition called pulmonary atresia, was in a stable condition in intensive care today after undergoing a four-hour high risk operation yesterday.

Her parents, Michala and Paul Cater, had been told that she might not survive the operation, but it was the only hope Lily had of living beyond her fifth birthday.

Mrs Cater, of Low Moor, Bradford, said last night: "Surgeons told us the operation had gone well. It's very hard for us to see her like this."

The operation had been cancelled nine times due to a shortage of intensive care beds at Birmingham Children's Hospital.

As reported in later editions of yesterday's Telegraph & Argus, surgeons at the hospital finally started to operate on Lily shortly after 9am.

She was expected to remain in intensive care for at least four days.