HALIFAX - A 10-year-old Vietnamese orphan who travelled from his homeland to find treatment for a disfiguring facial growth has left Halifax for Boston to finally begin a lengthy series of treatments that could dramatically transform his face.

Son Pham, who flew out of the Halifax airport Sunday night, will spend the next week at Children's Hospital Boston, where doctors will assess him and prepare him for treatment to shrink the football-sized growth on the left side of his face.

Olwyn Walter, who's been caring for Son since he arrived in Halifax last June, said Son was in good spirits as he prepared for what will be many trips to the Massachusetts capital.

"I think it's safe to say that we're all pretty excited," Walter, vice-president of the Children's Bridge Foundation, said before she and Son boarded their flight.

"We know that the journey ahead for the next year is not going to be an easy one, but it's finally getting started and we're very excited about that."

A team of plastic surgeons in Boston will give Son a series of injections every six to eight weeks for at least a year to shrink the growth - a process called sclerotherapy - followed by surgery.

Walter, Son and a translator will meet with doctors on Tuesday. The following day, it's expected doctors will insert a tracheostomy that will help Son breathe when he starts his treatments.

Walter said they will know more in the coming days when exactly the injections will begin.

"It's obviously not an easy procedure, so that's what we're being faced with," she said.

"So it's going to be a difficult year for all of us, for him in particular, but I think he's mentally prepared for it, and he's in a pretty good place. He's had time to get settled in Halifax, and he's got a good group of friends, and I think he's up for whatever's going to come at him."

Son's departure marks a turning point in a journey that was less certain just a few months ago.

The young boy initially came to Canada believing the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto would be able to reduce, if not remove, the lesion.

But after months of reviewing his case, doctors in Toronto said in November that they wouldn't proceed with the unspecified treatment because it posed risks and the condition isn't life-threatening.

One of the doctors in Boston, Dr. John Mulliken, has said he was mystified by the Toronto hospital's decision, and argued the growth could eventually block Son's airway and diminish his blood's ability to clot.

Mulliken has said he was confident he could reduce the lesion by about 90 per cent.

Son will return to Halifax between treatments.

Boston doctors are offering their services for free. The Ray Tye Medical Aid Foundation in Boston has donated $150,000 for Son's medical costs, while Walter's group has paid $200,000.

Walter said they'll need to raise another $75,000 to cover other costs, including accommodations, medicine and finally Son's trip to Vietnam.

"The plan is he'll go back to Vietnam and resume his life there," said Walter.

"Although it'll be somewhat different having spent a year and a half in North America, and he'll have gone to school to learn English, so we're hoping that his future in Vietnam is going to be much brighter in many, many respects."