Kentucky doctors treat Kazakhstan mother maimed by radiation treatments after cancer was misdiagnosed University of Louisville doctors to perform million-dollar reconstructive surgery for free 30-year-old who can barely open her mouth had been shunned by society for ten years A Kazakhstan woman left disfigured after radiation treatment ate away at her face when she was misdiagnosed with cancer is to receive life-changing treatment from Kentucky doctors. For more than 10 years Lessya Kotelevskaya hid from society after losing her business and husband when aggressive cancer treatment left a gaping hole in her cheek. After a cousin discovered her struggling to survive he brought her to the U.S. where University of Louisville doctors will reconstruct the petite blonde's face. Life-changing: Lessya Kotelevskaya is to be given reconstructive surgery to repair damage caused by radiation treatment 'I just want to become a normal person so I don't have to concentrate on my face,' Ms Kotelevskay, who had been living at a car wash when she was rescued by her cousin, told the Sun Herald. The mother of a six-year-old boy was 19 when she was told she had terminal cancer in her jaw. She had gone to her doctor after being elbowed in the face during a basketball game. The aggressive radiation treatment she was given disfigured her face and made it difficult for her to eat, talk or live a normal life. The 30-year-old can barely open her mouth and for nearly ten years believed she had a terminal disease. At a press conference today Ms Kotelevskay, who wears a bandage over her damaged cheek, wept as she told reporters the medical care she is now receiving 'means everything' to her. Dr. Jarrod Little, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon, is confident his team can help. Along with the University Hospital, Dr Little has agreed to undertake the milion-dollar treatment for free. 'There'll never be a normal the way it was before all of this started,' he said.' Our goals are to reconstruct her jawbone so she can eat, so she can talk, so she can swallow, she can function in normal society without having the stigmas that have been associated with her. Rejected: Lessya with her cousin Oleg Sennik who says the 30-year-old had been forced to live in the shadows of society because of the hole in her cheek As well as damaging her face, the misdiagnosis ruined Ms Kotelevskay's life. She was married and helped run her own clothing store at the time but, when the treatment left her unable to eat or speak properly her husband left in 2007 and the store was forced to close. 'She couldn't work, because everybody would look at her and say something's wrong with her, and she's going to die anyway,. She was totally rejected by society,' Oleg Sennik, her cousin, told the Courier-Journal. With no business or immediate family to rely on, Ms Kotelevskay began a life in the shadows of society. To avoid the unkind stares of strangers, the mother took night jobs such as cleaning gyms or carrying sand to people's doorways in winter. At one point, she was so hard up that Ms Kotelevskaya, who has to hold a towel to her face when she eats to prevent food dribbling out the hole in her cheek, had to live in the utility room of a car wash. When her cousin eventually traced her, she weighed just 79lb. Mr Sennik took her for treatment in Ukraine, where he had been raised, and it was there that she first realized her cancer diagnosis was wrong. Dr Little explained that it was possible for doctors to mistakenly identify benign tumors in the jawbone for cancer. 'If you're not accustomed to looking at them underneath the microscope, or you don't have specialized pathologists like we do here, they can be mistaken for malignant tumors,' he said. To repair the damage suffered by Ms Kotelevskaya she will have an initial surgery on November 14 followed by reconstructive surgery in January. In the second procedure, which will last for about 20 hours, surgeons will remove a leg bone, skin and blood vessels, and use them to form a new jawbone. Dr Little said the procedure was common practice for his medical team because Kentucky has some of the highest rates of head and neck cancer. She missed so many years of her life. She said that this is the first time she's feeling like she doesn't have to hide,' Mr Sennik said.