Veronica has goal of helping sick children

Armed with a few hundred flat-packed footballs, the Bolton mother-of-three aims to fly out to Tanzania within the next few weeks with the goal of bringing joy to hundreds of suffering schoolchildren.

Mrs Kilasi, of Ripley Street, Tonge Moor, said: "My heart tells me to go over there and start up this centre. It will be a place where people with leprosy can go freely. After all, these people are often shunned by their community."

A born-again Christian, Mrs Kilasi is hoping to put the proposal for the centre to the elders of the village churches near the town of Mwanza.

Her former husband is Tanzanian and she was struck by the plight of some of the children she saw on a visit to the country.

Mrs Kilasi, who has visited the area several times, has taken sports equipment in the past. And in a place where the enemies are hunger and poverty, she will be distributing food parcels.

"Last year, I bought basic staples such as maize, flour and rice and made them into parcels while I was over there" she revealed.

This year, as well as sports equipment, including football strips donated by the Bolton Lads and Girls Club, she is on the look out for a play parachute which forms part of a popular game with primary school children.

Mrs Kilasi finances the trips herself and buys the footballs with her own cash. But thanks to Andrea Peters, manager of a Bromley Cross health and beauty clinic, she has sponsorship for the first time.

Andrea, who works with Mrs Kilasi's daughter Zena, said: "Zena showed me some of the photographs of the village children and when I saw them it just hit the right note."

Following an excess baggage scare on one trip, Mrs Kilasi has to keep her luggage light and that could put paid to ambitions to take a television and video through customs -- one of her future targets.

Mrs Kilasi hopes people will support her trip by visiting her stall at the car boot sale at St Columbus Primary School, Ripley Street, on Sunday.