A woman who runs her own charity will be flying to Africa to help more than 100 children with severe burns.

Bronwen Jones, of Rickmansworth Road, will be heading to the Democratic Republic of Congo in her role as founder of the charity Children of Fire.

The charity, run from a small office in her Pinner home, has helped hundreds of children with severe burns from across Africa to get life-changing surgery and live independent lives.

The 56-year-old first started the charity after visiting South Africa as a reporter for The Times, where she met Dorah who was severely burnt in a hut fire when she was six months old in 1994.

She said: “I first started doing this because when I saw Dorah and I just wanted to fight for her and thought if this had happened to my child I would want someone to fight for them.

“After I did a story in The Times I received thousands of letters from people either giving their support or asking for help.”

Dorah had lost her lips, eyelids, nose, fingers and had burns to much of her body.

At one point doctors told Bronwen they would remove her eyes to save money on dressings.

Bronwen said: “I had no plans to start the charity in the first place but it just evolved and eventually we started helping more and more children.

“We have helped more than 350 children over the years but over the next month we aim to help at least 100.

“Compared to other huge international charities I think we do a lot more because we are always on the ground doing the work getting dirt on our shoes.”

Dorah was able to get life changing surgery in the UK and now lives in Pinner with Bronwen but will be staying at home for the latest expedition.

Ms Jones will be heading to Johannesburg in South Africa to meet with eight surgeons from Italy and others from Africa.

They will then move on to the Democratic of Congo where they will spend a month helping more than 100 children.