A mother has revealed how taking a second look at a photo of her son helped her spot a life threatening cancer behind her baby’s eye.
Andrea Temarantz was taking photos of her son Ryder, when she noticed the iris in her son’s eye had turned white in the photo.
Speaking to The Mirror, Andrea said the family were shocked when they heard that Ryder, who was born with Down’s Syndrome, had a rare life-threatening form of cancer behind his eye.
According to Andrea, the family were given three options for the three month old baby – remove his eye, have targeted chemotherapy or undergo specialist treatment at a local hospital.
While Andrea is grateful that her son has fully recovered after undergoing specialist treatment which included administering “a teaspoon of chemotherapy”, the mother said she decided to speak out about her story to help raise awareness:
"We just hope for people to see how easy it would be to recognize this.
"My husband has always thought I was ‘crazy picture mom,’ but look at us now. So early detection is the main thing."
Speaking about the rare childhood cancer retinoblastoma, Dr David Abramson who performed Ryder’s surgery, said:
"This is a cancer that is actually usually detected by parents and not by physicians.
"It’s a very nasty cancer that is curable and treatable."
The doctor added that retinoblastoma is typically diagnosed in children before the age of five years old.
Lead Image: Mirror UK
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