Parents spot 'strange glint' in toddler's eye while taking photo that led to heartbreaking diagnosis
A mum and dad received heartbreaking news about their son after they spotted a 'strange glint' in his eye.
30-year-old mum, Lowri Gallagher, and her partner, Shane Stevenson, started to get worried after they noticed that their son Kooper's left eye gave a white glint whenever they turned out the lights.
Lowri hadn't been too worried at first when she'd noticed there was a slight difference in the way her son's eyes looked, but when she noticed how his left eye looked without light, they hopped onto Google to check if there was something to worry about.
The search engine told them it might be 'retinoblastoma', a type of eye cancer that can affect young children which can be revealed by a camera flash.
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The parents took a bunch of pictures of Kooper with the flash on and they could see the white glow in his eye in every photo.
Rushing the toddler to Birmingham Children's Hospital, the parents were shocked to learn their son was diagnosed with unilateral retinoblastoma, which had left the boy blind in his left eye and they were told that there was a chance he could keep the eye with chemotherapy.
Shane said: "My partner said she saw something funny in his eye but she didn't really say what and I'm not a big panicker so I thought it'd be fine.
"A couple of nights later, I had the boys at home and I noticed it myself. When the lights are off his pupil goes white.
"You couldn't see it properly, you could see it if you looked a certain way and there was a reflection in his eye, you could see a little bit of white in his pupil.
"I googled it and there were a couple of things that it could've been and one of them was eye cancer, retinoblastoma, and I panicked a little bit then."
He added that it was 'not guaranteed' that the toddler will be able to keep his eye even with chemotherapy, and said that 'nothing prepares you to hear that your child has cancer'.
The boy's mum Lowri said: "The week before we found out what it was was the worst week. I didn't know what it was, how fatal it would be, if it had spread, I was wondering if he was going to lose his eye.
"At least then we knew what it was and what the plan was, it was a bit of a relief because the speculation was over.
"I just felt numb, I didn't know how to feel."
The toddler is undergoing intra arterial chemotherapy and will have to go through chemotherapy injections and laser therapy, which will take at least two years.
His parents said the boy was handing things well and was still a rascal, but 'doesn't understand' some parts of the treatment, which makes it 'hard to watch'. Shane said that if they'd not Googled the symptoms and taken the pictures they'd not have acted as quickly.
He said he 'probably wouldn't have gone to the GP urgently' and instead 'probably would have waited until he got worse'.
Now the couple are advising other parents to be vigilant about this sort of thing and not to leave it.
A GoFundMe has been set up to support the family, which can be donated to here.
Topics: Cancer, Health, UK News, Parenting, Technology
Joe Harker