A mum's world was turned "upside down" when her toddler was diagnosed with a rare cancer after spotting light reflecting in her eye.
Two-year-old Lola McKenna had a glare on her right eye, with mum Sophie McKenna noticing she was regularly falling over more than usual. Concerned, Sophie and Lola's dad Stephen took to Google to discover they could be symptoms of a tumour.
Now aged three, Lola has since been diagnosed with retinoblastoma - a rare form of cancer in the retina which tends to present itself in children under three. Sophie, 32, from Woodchurch, Merseyside, noticed the symptoms in May this year.
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"Lola wasn't poorly and never complained of her eye hurting," she told the Liverpool ECHO. "We never really noticed that her sight had changed but she had started falling over a lot more than usual, we just put it down to her being a toddler."
Lola was immediately taken to see a GP after Sophie and Stephen, 42, read up on what it may be. The doctor told them to urgently visit an optician who would be able to tell them more.
The optician in turn referred the family to Arrowe Park Hospital and then Alder Hey Children's Hospital, followed by a visit to a specialist team in Birmingham where a tumour in her eye called a retinoblastoma was confirmed. Sophie, who also has six-year-old son Jacob, said the family's world "fell apart" when they received the news.
"It was a major shock and still is today," she said. "You never think it will happen to your family, never mind your two-year-old baby girl. It's your worst nightmare coming true."
"It turned our world upside down, it was so out of the blue and was very much the unknown. I've really struggled coming to terms with it and haven't managed to go back to work since her diagnosis. Lola has been an absolute warrior, even with everything she has been through and everything she has to come she's such a happy girl."
Sophie now wants to spread the word about retinoblastoma, which affects one in every 15,000 to 16,000 people. She said that, had they known about the symptoms sooner, Lola's cancer would have been caught much earlier.
Signs of retinoblastoma include a white glare in one or both eyes when shining a light on them, eyes changing colour, frequent squinting or eye pain, eyes swelling, turning red or looking in different directions and vision loss.
A GoFundMe has been set up for Lola and her family to raise money and awareness of the condition. Money will be donated to specialist eye cancer charity, The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust. You can donate to the GoFundMe page.
