91Èȱ¬

Every year, 600 children with disfiguring conditions visit the world renowned Craniofacial Unit team at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Here their lives are transformed by astonishing and innovative surgery, backed by psychological and educational support.

This major new three-part series by Landmark Films for 91Èȱ¬ Two follows children with life threatening conditions through the surgery which quite literally rebuilds their heads and faces and, ultimately, their lives.

The Oxford Craniofacial Unit is based at Oxford Children's Hospital, part of the John Radcliffe Hospital. It's one of only four super-regional centres in the UK licensed to carry out a particular type of complex and risky surgery which dismantles the face and skull and refits them in a better shape. The team has a worldwide reputation for pioneering surgery but it's also a "one stop shop" combining the skills of surgery with psychological and counselling support for severely disfigured children and their families, genetic counselling and speech and language therapy.

For the first time, this world-renowned hospital team has agreed to let cameras behind the scenes to make a series showing the extraordinary work they do for their patients and their families. Their work is dramatic, high risk, emotional and life affirming.

My Child In Their Hands shows the ground breaking and innovative surgery which transforms children's lives: from the first operation on a child whose family might still be reeling with the shock of such severe abnormalities, to the growth of hope and confidence in those families as they are helped through surgery.

Viewers will also meet adolescents having to deal with the self consciousness of the teenage years and young adults discussing how they came to terms with their appearance and people's reactions to it.

The series also explores the genetic research and scientific investigations which underpin the work of the team. The department's geneticists are world leaders in their field, uncovering the tiny genetic mutations which cause such abnormalities. But at its heart are the surgeons and neurosurgeons working at the very limits of their abilities in high risk operations.

Executive producer for Landmark Films, Nicholas O'Dwyer, says: "The work of the Craniofacial team is simply astonishing: they have transformed the life prospects of a whole generation of children who have passed through their doors. Some children have been so severely disfigured by their condition that people would stop and stare in the street. Through the Oxford team's work, they undergo a transformation which means they wouldn't attract a second glance in the playground. Much of this work takes years and the dedication of the surgical team and those who surround them is amazing. Filming with them over the past year has been a privilege.

"Some of the children have rare genetic syndromes which cause face and skull abnormalities and others have sustained more mechanical damage in the womb which has meant their skull is too rigid to allow their brains room to grow.

"The first family we filmed with was of a little boy, Finley. When he was born, his skull was hugely misshapen. The Oxford team quickly diagnosed him as having a very rare genetic disorder, Aperts, which essentially meant his skull was fused into a tight, distorted and restricting cage round his brain, stopping it growing normally. The surgery he faced was daunting as they had to remove the front part of his skull and completely remodel it, requiring millimetre precision in the operating theatre.

"But this is a routine operation for the surgical team who often do two such operations in a day and, 12 months on, Finley is a healthy, happy little soul. Making Faces will take viewers into this unseen world where lives are transformed and life or death surgery takes place every day."

My Child In Their Hands is currently in post-production and is due for transmission on 91Èȱ¬ Two in the summer of 2011. The series is a Landmark Films production. The series is directed by Monica Garnsey with executive producers Nick O'Dwyer (Landmark) and Maxine Watson (91Èȱ¬). International distribution and sales are being handled by Passion Distribution.

FW