Julie Andrews is hoping an innovative new throat treatment will help her sing again - after a botched operation robbed the star of her famous vocal range.
The Sound of Music actress, whose voice once spanned four octaves, underwent surgery in 1997 to remove non-cancerous nodules from her throat.
It left her unable to sing and she filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against doctors at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital. The case was settled out of court in 2000.
The 74-year-old's voice coach, Dr Steven Zeitels, has been collaborating with chemical engineer Professor Robert Langer, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a bid to find a cure.
And now Langer has made a breakthrough which could help give Andrews her voice back, by injecting man-made gel into her vocal cords to restore their elasticity.
Professor Langer reveals the treatment could be made available within two years: "So far the animal trials have been promising. It appears safe in animals. We hope we can start a clinical trial on this gel in a year or two. I don't want to promise we'll do it on Julie Andrews but she has been a big proponent of it. She has been a great supporter. She came into our office and explained that she cannot hold a note because of scarring."
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