A youngster who lost an eye to cancer has become the star of this year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.

Isla Firth, nine, teamed up with Prof Danielle George to take part in a experiment which saw her have her head scanned in 3D images.

Isla, who lives in Gillingham and is a pupil at Twydall Primary School, went along to the filming of the historic science and engineering lectures in London earlier this month.

Prof George, an electrical engineer from the University of Manchester, will take some great British inventions and demonstrate how viewers can adapt, transform and hack these every day technologies to do extraordinary things.

The lectures will be broadcast on BBC Four at 8pm on December 29, 30 and 31 and Isla will appear on the second show.

After having her head scanned and printed, Isla said: “The bust looks amazing! It’s really interesting, I never knew my nose was so small.”

Steve Cox, education ambassador at CREATE Education who was part of the team who made Isla’s 3D printed bust added: “Having watched the Christmas lectures from all those years ago when I was a young aspiring engineer, it was an unbelievable experience to actually be involved with one.

“The look on Isla’s face when she was given the bust was priceless. Once she went back to her seat with it I could see her keep picking it up and examining it and hugging it. At times it made me quite emotional, but what a reward for four days of hard work on this project.”

Filmed in front of a live audience at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the science and engineering events for children were started by Michael Faraday in 1825 and have long been seen as a favourite British Christmas tradition.

To find out more visit, http://rigb.org.uk/christmas-lectures/2013-life-fantastic