FAMILY and friends of a desperately sick young woman from Eckington are delighted this evening to have hit a target of £21,000 for a lifesaving operation.

Antonia Payne-Cheney has an acute form of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a rare connective tissue disorder, along with complex secondary complaints, and these have caused her brain stem to be compressed and to have further gastro-intestinal failure.

Miss Payne-Cheney's illness was the focus earlier this year of the programme DIY SOS, which saw the BBC team transform her home, enabling her to leave hospital after three-and-a-half years in hospital.

At the start of the week, her mother, Victoria Cheney, appealed for £21,000 by Friday, to get Antonia to Barcelona for the vital operation.

And the target was reached today thanks to the generosity of people from across Worcestershire and beyond.

Family friend and fundraiser Sarah Grout said: "It's amazing. First thing this morning, we needed £5,750 to reach the target, and by the afternoon we had got about £12,000."

She said the extra money will go towards covering the £40,000 cost of Antonia's rehabilitation. The family will be flying out on Monday, as Antonia will have be in the hospital at Barcelona for a month before the operation, to ensure she is in the best shape, and for a month afterwards to recover.

She said: "The family is absolutely astounded at the generosity of people. It really is Wonderful Worcestershire, donations started coming in as soon as the appeal was published and we want to than all the readers of the Worcester News and Evesham Journal for their generosity. It's not just local people either; we had responses from all over the world."

To find out more and to donate, visit Tonia’s Journey on Facebook, or on Twitter at @ToniasJourney, or justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/just4children/toniasjourneyforsurvival.