A police officer from Chippenham is still waiting for a new date for brain surgery, after her operation in January was postponed.

Mel Neal, 31, needs the operation to remove a rare collection of abnormal blood vessels, called a cavernoma, which she has nicknamed Cuthbert.

The growth could cause epileptic seizures or a stroke, but Miss Neal – who has a two-year-old daughter – is still waiting for a new appointment to be allocated after a six-week delay.

She was scheduled to have the surgery a couple of days after a team of her colleagues in Chippenham Response shaved their heads on January 12, along with her sister, Emma Neal, and fiance, Tim Harris.

More than £6,800 of donations to the Cavernoma Alliance UK charity have been already been pledged at justgiving.com/hayley-hardie2 One of Miss Neal’s friends, PCSO Claire Hannam, said: “She was looking to go to Birmingham, but it was a six-week waiting list just for a consultation there, so she decided just to wait for the John Radcliffe Hospital at Oxford.

“She’s on steroids at home, but is still chirpy. She’s had lots of phone calls from us, including from the Assistant Chief Constable, so she knows we haven’t forgotten about her.”