A simple eye test saved the life of our daughter
When Jo Beckwith’s little girl Daisy started complaining of headaches, she had no idea the five-year-old’s life was at risk. Here Jo, 46, tells how an optician spotted a deadly brain tumour...
Family at Disney World Daisy the night before her op was terrifying as I thought she was having a stroke. I rang my GP in Shenfield in Essex, where I now work as a receptionist, and insisted on seeing a doctor.
They said I had to take Daisy to the opticians as soon as possible.
The opticians I usually used couldn’t see her so I went to Vision Express around the corner.
I burst into tears at the front desk – they said they’d fit her in that day. The optometrist took a photo of the back of her eye and stuck it on the wall. She pointed out Daisy’s optic nerve and said, ‘It shouldn’t look like that.’
She referred us to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and told us we had to go right away. I was petrified but also slightly relieved – finally someone was listening to us after six months of insisting something was wrong. Doctors did more tests, saying Daisy needed a CT scan that night, so we were taken to our local hospital in an ambulance at 1am. It took hours for the results to come through and at 5am they called us into a little room. I was sobbing and when they told us she had a grade one brain tumour, I went into complete shock.
Daisy had a slowly progressing grade one tumour measuring 4cm by 4c was p back
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