Gorata's Story

In September 2004, 3yr old Gorata (Rati) was been diagnosed with a recurrence of retinoblastoma (eye cancer) in the socket of her left eye, which was removed when she was 11 months of age. The tumor spread to her brain and cerebro-spinal fluid but, treatment was unavailable in her home country of Botswana.

Rati's amazing journey to Canada began shortly afterwards, when her parents, John and Salome, located a retinoblastoma (RB) support website online and sent out an email request for prayer and advice following their daughter's fresh diagnosis. Thousands of miles away, in Oxford, England, RB survivor Abby White read the email and immediately responded, using her contacts in the worldwide RB community to find help for this little girl.

One week after the initial email reached Oxford, Dr Brenda Gallie offered treatment at Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital. Selwyn Lloyd, whose daughter, Daisy, had recently been treated at SickKids, pledged money from his daughter's fund to cover the costs of transport for Rati and her mother from Botswana to Canada, and Abby put all travel arrangements in place.

In a matter of days, the international RB community, centred around SickKids, raised $25,000 to cover the initial phase of Rati's treatment, and she flew into Toronto on October 25th, 2004. This is when the International Retinoblastoma Daisy Fund was created.

Thanks to an internet plea for help, Rati has traveled from Southern Africa to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.

For more of this story, please visit
http://www.irdaisyfund.org/IRDF/rati.html
http://www.orphancancer.org/Gorata/