A cancer survivor scaled Africa’s highest mountain walking with a false leg, suffered blindness and needed to be carried down in a stretcher – all in aid of fellow patients.

Andy Ward, 41, described reaching the summit of the 19,000ft high Mt Kilimanjaro as the hardest thing he has done in his life.

The father-of-three achieved the climb despite walking with a prosthetic limb after losing his leg below the knee following complications with testicular cancer three years ago.

Before he reached the peak Mr Ward, of Arran Grove, in Banbury, went blind in one eye due to the high altitude and finished a final eight hour stretch down the mountain on a stretcher because his prosthetic leg was causing so much pain.

Mr Ward, who completed the climb with nurse Gemma Crane, 29, a cancer nurse at Oxford's Churchill Hospital, raised more than £4,000 for Oxford-based charity Urology Cancer Research and Education.

He said: “The walk to the very top and back down again almost killed me. I was in the army for six years and been out in all weathers as a builder for many years but this was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

“But it was the best week of my life as well.

The trek took five days including a night time trek reaching the peak last Friday morning.

Mt Kilimanjaro is the highest single standing peak in the world.

He said: “I went blind in one eye due to the altitude pressure, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.

“I was scared but I made it. I was so fired up nothing was going to stop me.

“I achieved what I wanted to do with so many things working against me.

“It wasn’t enjoyable because it was so painful. I went up there to be broken and come back. And that happened a lot of times.”

Only eight of Mr Ward’s 12-strong fundraising team reached the peak. His vision only returned once he reached sea-level again.

He said: “Coming back down almost killed me.

“I was completely gone and had nothing left.

“I’d pulled all my muscles and tendons and couldn’t bear to walk on it any more.”

Mr Ward, a builder and plumber, is now recovering at home with his three children Amey, 15, Joseph, 12, and Ellie, nine.

The funds he raised will help fellow cancer patients.

mwilkinson@oxfordmail.co.uk