A 20-YEAR-OLD who spent three months with half of her skull missing is on the road to recovery after doctors used a 3D printer to build a new one.

Tiffany Cullern, from Park South, had no sense of smell when she was just 15 years old, which doctors put down to her being allergic to her pet rabbit.

But after months of taking antihistamines, and even giving her pet away, Tiffany’s GP was left puzzled that nothing was working.

She was then referred to the Great Western Hospital two years ago where doctors made a startling discovery – one that would impact on her life forever.

“I was meant to have an operation to sort out how I couldn’t smell but after speaking to the surgeon, he decided to put it on hold and do a CT scan,” Tiffany explained.

“They found a mass but thought it was a cyst so I was booked in for yet another little surgery to drain it.

“I remember waking up from it and asking has it gone but then the doctors said they took a biopsy instead.

“I was then sent to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford where the doctors told me I had a rare brain tumour.”

Tiffany was suffering with juvenile psammomatoid ossifying fibroma – a rare brain benign tumour that was the size of a golf ball.

Doctors were able to remove the tumour in eight and a half hours but only two days later, it became clear that something was still not right.

“I don’t remember anything from that week of my life but my whole family were in a bit of a mess because while my mum was with me, my dad was at home looking after my younger siblings,” Tiffany said.

“My mum told the nurses at the hospital that I wasn’t responded to anything and after having yet another CT scan, I was rushed back into surgery for a six and a half hour operation to remove a clot from my brain from where it swelled so much.”

But during the procedure, doctors were forced to remove a large piece of her skull and were unable to put it back into place.

This meant that Tiffany was left without a piece of her skull for three months, though her condition did not stop her from trying to get back to her regular life.

Impressively, she returned to her part-time job at Morrisons in Regent Circus and even took exams at Swindon College.

Then on a trip to the hospital to get treatment for an infected scar, Tiffany learnt about a revolutionary operation that would get her looking and feeling normal again.

“I didn’t know what to think when they showed me the 3D printed skull because I had never heard of it,” she said.

“The shape was created using all of my old CT and MRI scans and while there was a delay in getting it, once I had the skull put in, I could feel where it all joined.

“Doctors have said it could take years to fuse and even today, I still get pain where it is trying to fuse to the existing part of my skull but

“It was weird not having part of my skull there because once I got home from hospital, just by touching my head, you could feel my brain pulsating and you sort of got used to it.”

The 3D printed skull piece was made from titanium, plastic, and calcium.

Recently engaged to her boyfriend Adam, Tiffany is thankful to have her head back to normal and is happy to be moving forward with her life.