A FIVE-year-old North-East boy has baffled doctors after contracting a rare cancer only ever found before in women.

When a birth mark on little Ian Milstone's head turned into an egg-sized lump his parents rushed him to a doctor but it took two-and-a-half years to diagnose his mystery illness.

It was finally found that he was suffering from a rare form of cancer known as Dermatofibrosarcoma normally only found in females.

And yesterday his mother Lisa and father Ian of Oxclose, Washington told of their four-year-nightmare.

Ian was taken to five different hospitals, but it wasn't until he was seen by experts at the University Hospital at Durham that it was decided to remove the lump and the cancer was diagnosed.

"They had been saying it was a cyst and it was a big thing to find out it was cancer,'' said Lisa, 24, who was told only three-in-one-million suffer from the rare disease.

"The doctors said it was the only time they had ever seen it affect a boy,'' she said.

After surgery more growths appeared and doctors at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary took the decision to remove a 4cm piece of bone from his skull.

Ian did not need chemotherapy but his extensive surgery required a year to heal before a titanium plate could be inserted over the gap where the bone had been removed.

He now faces having a hair transplant later this year, but is recovering fast.

"At the time he was really poorly, but now he jumps about like any-five-year-old. I don't blame the doctors for not realising it was cancer because the type Ian had was so rare,'' said Lisa.

Next year the family including Ian and his sister Ashleigh, three, are to visit Disneyland in Florida to celebrate the brave little boy's much brighter future.