A woman who suffered with eye cancer as a baby is set to take on an African trek to help youngsters with the condition.

Iffley’s Abby White co-founded Daisy’s Eye Cancer Fund in 2005 to support young children suffering with retinoblastoma.

She will join 11 others in a five day 80km challenge across Tanzania’s Great Rift Valley on Thursday, September 25.

She said: “It’s been very hard having limited sight. It has not stopped me but it has been a challenge finding new ways of doing things.”

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Miss White, 37, was diagnosed with the condition at eight-days-old after inheriting it from father John White, who died from the cancer in 1997.

She now has an artificial right eye while radiotherapy as a baby caused the bones around her left eye to resemble the size of a child’s.

Miss White said:” I was bullied a lot at school because of the way my eyes looked.”

The Oxford University graduate launched a website in 2003 to provide information to families affected by the childhood cancer.

A family in Botswana contacted her for help after their daughter Gorata Poonyane was diagnosed with the disease.

Three weeks later, Miss White flew to Toronto to try and secure funding to provide Gorata with medical help.

Gorata was initially treated by medics in Oxford and Canada but the cancer returned and the four-year-old died in 2006. Ms White said she believes the doctors didn’t realise the early signs of the condition so failed to save Gorata’s life.

She said: “It’s not like we are looking for a cure.

“We already know how to cure it but we need to teach people how to notice the symptoms early.”

After Gorata’s death Miss White began working in Kenya with charity co-founder and University of Toronto professor Brenda Gaille.

Together they organised seminars for the country’s doctors to meet and discuss ways to improve health care.

This led to the Kenya National Retinoblastoma Strategy in 2008 which aims to provide care and treatment for Kenyan children battling the eye cancer.

It also led to the creation of a system which allows medics in Kenya to refer infants for immediate treatment. She added: “Every child with cancer deserves the opportunity to overcome that cancer.

“It should not matter where in the world they live. Cancer does not discriminate.

“These children in Africa have the same right to overcome it as the children in the UK who have the expert care.

“I think it’s really important that we are aware and we don’t forget this.”

Miss White has raised more than £4,000 before the Tanzania challenge and hopes the group can reach a total of £40,000.

She has been preparing for the challenge with walks along the River Isis and training sessions at Virgin Active Health Club, in Woodstock Road.

To donate visit www.africanbushtrek2014.everydayhero.com/uk/trekforhope

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