Four-year-old African girl Gorata Poonyane has died after losing her long battle against cancer.

Little Gorata - whose fight against the rare childhood eye cancer retinoblastoma has featured in the Oxford Mail over the past two years - passed away with her parents and three sisters at her bedside on Monday.

Gorata, known as Rati, touched the hearts of Oxfordshire people after the Mail told how Oxford woman Abby White helped her get treatment following a plea by her Botswanan parents, John and Salome, via the Internet in 2004.

Gorata had already had her left eye removed when, at the age of two, doctors in Botswana diagnosed a recurrence of the disease and began planning disfiguring, and potentially fatal, surgery to remove most of the side of her face.

Miss White, who had retinoblastoma as a child, spoke to specialists in America who confirmed the procedure would do little to prevent the cancer spreading.

She and specialists arranged for the operation to be halted so that Gorata could be flown to the Hospital for Sick Children, in Canada, and undergo specialist treatment.

After arriving at the hospital in October 2004, Gorata underwent surgery and chemotherapy.

By January this year, doctors thought she was on the road to recovery and she was looking forward to returning home to Botswana.

But a few weeks later, she suffered a seizure and began feeling ill. Doctors discovered the disease had spread to her brain. There was no cure.

Miss White, 29, of Boundary Brook Road, East Oxford, spent several months in Canada with Gorata and organised some special treats for her and her sisters Thabitha, Naledi and Bame - including their first trip to see the ocean.

Sadly, she was unable to be in Canada when Gorata died as she had to return to Oxford for medical treatment herself.

She said the little girl spent the last few weeks of her life sedated, and would have felt no pain.

Miss White said: "Rati held on in there for so long and was so very brave. We all knew it was coming, but it does not lessen the blow.

"It has left a gaping hole in the lives of her family and myself, and it is so sad because her death was so unnecessary."

Miss White said treatment given to children with cancer in developing countries was sub-standard.

She said Rati's diagnosis took too long and initial treatment was carried out too late. Rati received no check-ups or further eye examinations after her left eye was removed and, if this had happened, the recurrence of retinoblastoma would have been spotted much earlier.

Miss White said: "Had Rati received proper treatment back in Botswana it's very likely she would have survived this cancer."

She thanked everyone - including Oxford Mail readers - who donated money towards Gorata's treatment, and said she wanted people to know they had helped.

She hopes Rati's case will highlight the plight of families in developing countries, and is working with the International Retinoblastoma Daisy Fund to raise money and awareness to help others.

She said: "80 per cent of children in the world who have cancer are in developing countries, but they receive only 10 per cent of global childhood cancer funds.

"In England, 97 per cent of children survive retinoblastoma, but worldwide, 87 per cent die from it.

"Where is the balance?"