Though she doesn't know it yet, two-year-old Sophie Duncan has a place in medical history.

She was one of the first children in Britain to be treated with a revolutionary spray-on skin.

Sophie suffered severe scalding to her neck and back after her mother accidentally spilt a bowl of boiling water on her.

But two years on, scarring from her injuries is minimal, thanks to the treatment she received from doctors at the Queen Victoria Hospital (QVH) in East Grinstead.

Her mother Lindsey, of Alders Avenue, East Grinstead, said the treatment and the speed of her daughter's recovery was nothing short of a miracle.

She said: "When the doctors first mentioned spray-on skin I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"I wasn't thinking straight anyway because I was so upset and when they mentioned this pioneering new treatment I couldn't get my head round it. I didn't think we had the technology to do it.

"But when they explained how it worked and I realised we had nothing to lose, I just said: 'Do it'."

Doctors took a small sample from Sophie's thigh and used it to cultivate a solution of skin cells. The solution was then sprayed on her back.

Sophie was just ten months old when she suffered the scalding injuries.

Lindsey, 30, said: "Sophie had been sick on the carpet so I put the kettle on, boiled some water up and poured it into a bowl ready to clean it up. As I carried the bowl, Sophie, who had just started to crawl, got under my feet.

"I tried to step over her and as I bent down, the water came out of the bowl and down her back.

"I called an ambulance and put her straight in the bath and poured cold water over the scalding. I didn't know but that was the wrong thing to do - it should have been tepid water. I had no idea of the seriousness of her injuries. I thought her skin would just blister and recover. But the doctors told me the scalding had gone through the full thickness of her skin."

Sophie went first to Crawley Hospital, then to the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London and then to the QVH where doctors proposed the new treatment.

Sophie underwent several operations to cut away the dead skin on her back before the new, spray-on skin could be applied. Within six weeks it became clear her wounds had healed.

Lindsey, who also has an eight-week-old son, Thomas, said without the treatment Sophie would have been left with very disfiguring scarring.

She said: "She does have some scarring but that was caused by the delay. Ideally the spray-on skin needs to be applied within the first two weeks. But I'm so pleased with the result.

"For now she has to cover up when she goes in the sun and she may always need to wear very high-factor sun cream. But that's a small price to pay."

Sophie also has three-monthly check-ups with her paediatrician and occupational therapist.

Her speech is not as advanced as it should be for her age but doctors do not know if that is caused by the trauma she suffered or that she is simply a slow speaker.

This week doctors announced they are to conduct the first controlled clinical study to examine the effectiveness of spray-on skin cells for burns and scalding victims.

The team at the QVH will study the procedure on adults and children.

Phil Gilbert, a consultant plastic surgeon and burns specialist, said: "In pilot studies we get the impression that wounds heal noticeably quicker with less scarring using this spray-on method.

"We now need to quantify how good it is at saving lives, repairing wounds and reducing the cost of caring for burns victims to the NHS."

Skin cells have been grown in laboratories since the mid-Seventies but until now there has not been a significant, scientifically-controlled study.

Dr Liz James, a cell culture scientist and head of research at the Blond McIndoe Centre for medical research based at the QVH, said the evidence so far had been positive, even in the most severe cases.

She said: "We have seen what I can only describe as miraculous results using spray-on skin, with patients surviving 90 per cent burns who otherwise had very little chance of survival."

Scalding is one of the most common reasons for children to be seen in UK hospitals. About 300 cases are seen each year at the QVH, of which 200 are a result of scalding.

Amanda Wood, head of the hospital's paediatric burns unit, said: "We hope this study will show youngsters need not be left with a lifetime's reminder of a childhood accident."

Spray-on skin grafts are suitable for people suffering from more than 30 per cent burns.

Injuries of this magnitude are likely to have destroyed both the epidermis and dermis (outer and inner) layers of the skin, preventing cell regeneration.

A piece of skin, normally measuring 4-6cm square, is taken from elsewhere on the patient's body and stretched into a fine mesh covering a much larger area. It is then placed over the wound.

A second sample of the patient's skin cells are used to cultivate a skin solution in the laboratory. This is then sprayed on to the wound in the gaps within the mesh, helping to close the wound and speed up the healing process.

The spray-on technique is quicker to use and cheaper than sheets of cultured skin. It can also be used on the soles of the feet which are hard to graft.

It is also suitable for pigmentation abnormalities and cosmetic surgery.