A blind woman has helped to raise �3,000 for charity after completing a five day Iceland Volcano trek in memory of her husband.

Joanne Rayment, 50 from Boscombe Road, Hornchurch has just returned home after taking part in the mission for RP Fighting Blindness as a tribute to her husband Ian who died just a month ago from Leukaemia.

She said: “Ian would have been very proud of me because he always wanted me to do something like this, but at the same time I am really proud of myself as it was the biggest challenge I have ever done but it has opened a new life for me.”

Joanne, who lost her sight 22 years ago due to a genetic vision impairing condition called retinis pigmentosa was also joined on the journey by her 19-year-old son Charlie.

The mission saw the pair and eight other people with the condition overcoming obstacles to cross 40 miles of Iceland’s volcanic material.

On the last day of the trip Joanne had to have three stitches in her head after falling when getting out of the coach.

She said: “There were a couple of times that I fell and just got up again, because I had so many people who were there helping me.

“They were my eyes and even when I had bad days I always felt Ian was there pushing me on, its funny that in the end I just fell out of the coach, but luckily there was a doctor with us.”

Joanne had originally planned to do the trek with her husband but he was forced to pull out because of problems with his knees which they thought was caused by his Bone Marrow disease.

When he was diagnosed with leukaemia on May 13, he persuaded her to continue with the trek and even used his laptop in the hospital to get his friends to sponsor her.

When he died on June 13, his family and friends gave money for Joanne’s trek instead of flowers for the funeral.

Joanne said: “Ian was so passionate about the charity and he really wanted me to get my sight back one day and he was doing everything he could to raise money.

“Even at the end when things were not looking good he was very positive and was just trying to raise as much money for me as he could.”

To donate visit www.justgiving.com/teams/VolcanicCash