A toddler who survived a rare form of cancer visited a Bromley store to help raise awareness.

Ayana Catanitiou, three, was diagnosed with unilateral retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer, when she was just nine months old.

It took her mother, Oanna Visan, 24, numerous visits to the doctors to convince them something was wrong.

Ayana, from Campshill Road in Lewisham, had to have part of her right eye removed.

Ms Visan said: “When they told me she had retinoblastoma I was shocked, I had never heard of it before.

"I think it's really important to raise awareness of this because people don't know about this.

"Maybe if we had known, things would have been different. The thing that bothers me is we were sent home by the doctors."

Luckily the cancer did not spread and she made a full recovery, but now wears a false eye.

Ms Visan, a retail assistant, added: "But it was a great day on Wednesday, Ayana got a t-shirt a little teddy bear."

MORE TOP STORIES The youngster visited Vision Express, at intu Bromley, on Wednesday (May 13) as part of a fundraising drive.

People were invited to guess the name of a teddy for a £1 and a donation-only glasses ‘MOT’ was on offer.

The store, as part of Retinoblastoma Week, is raising money for the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust (CHECT).

Final amounts raised are still being counted.

Vision Express Bromley store manager, Julie Goldsmith, said: “It’s a great morale boost for the team to do something meaningful for such a good cause, and having Ayana here will spur us on - every single penny we can raise will count, and we hope the local community will dig deep to support us.”