An 11-year-old Winnipeg girl battling a rare liver disease is getting her long-awaited surgery for a transplant.

Allexis Siebrecht's family was notified late Saturday of a donor match, and was flown to Toronto early Sunday morning. She was wheeled into the operating room at 6 a.m. CT Monday for the operation, which is expected to take between eight to 12 hours.

"I've just been keeping really close to her, holding her hand, encouraging," said Liz Siebrecht, Allexis' mom. "She's thinking positive. She's actually saying she's really excited, and that she's not scared."

Allexis and her family appealed to the public for help earlier this year after the young girl's condition began to deteriorate.

​Allexis was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia when she was a baby. The disease affects about 10 in 20,000 infants, and impedes bile transport from the liver to the small intestine, which damages the tissue.

In late March, her family was told she would need a transplant within three to six months in order to survive.

After desperate public pleas and two offers of liver lobe donations from live donors that didn't work out, Siebrecht got a call Saturday night around 11:30 p.m. that a match was available from a deceased donor.

The family was told it was someone in their 20s and that they were being kept alive on life support until Allexis could get there.

"I was like, 'What do I do? Is this really happening? Then the woman spoke to me, calmed me down and just told me, 'It's going to be OK,'" said Siebrecht. "We got to the airport at 12:30 a.m., and we left."

She expects to be in Toronto for six to eight weeks if Allexis does well.

"If there is rejection and unforeseen stuff, we could possibly be here longer, but we're going to be positive," Siebrecht said.

Tina Lussier, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Liver Foundation's Manitoba chapter, is filled with gratitude to Allexis' donor and their family.

"I really hope that they know where their loved one's organ has gone. I hope it will give them some comfort knowing they have saved this beautiful little girl," she said.

A fundraiser is being held in June 11 at the Transcona Inn to help pay for the family's expenses.