Pirate game revealed toddler’s rare eye cancer

A MUM found out her young daughter had cancer in her eye when the pair played pirates.

Emily Taylor had noticed her daughter Alice, then two, had a slight squint. She took her to a GP but had to wait months for a referral.

Emily, 30, then noticed Alice’s eye sometimes looked see-through in certain light. She looked it up and, to her horror, realised it could be cancer of the eye.

Emily, of Poole, Dorset, said: “I decided to do some tests at home.

“We played a pirate game, putting a patch over her ‘good eye’, and it became clear that she couldn’t see.

“At that point I panicked and called the hospital to ask if we could be seen sooner.” Within days medics confirmed Alice had retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer.

Emily said: “They told us we could remove Alice’s eye straight away or try chemotherapy, and there was a 50/50 chance of saving it.”

Despite six rounds of chemotherapy, cryotherapy and laser treatment Alice, now four, had to have the eye removed this summer and now proudly wears a false eye. Emily said: “She has really taken to her special eye.”

On World Sight Day yesterday, Patrick Tonks, of the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust, said a child is diagnosed with the condition every week in the UK. He added: “Early diagnosis can help to save a child’s eyes, sight and life.”