A beautiful toddler named Taylor seemed like he would be a natural as a child model, so his mother, Tina Treadwell, snapped a few photos of him and proudly showed them to his aunt before submitting them to a modeling agency. It's an amazing thing she did because his aunt, Geraldine, noticed something in the photo that raised her suspicions—and may have wound up saving the little boy's life.
Geraldine says she remembered reading a story about eye cancer and that one of the signs appeared in the photo taken of Taylor: there was a strange "shadow" in one of his eyes that could only be detected in the pictures.
Imagine this mother's shock and fear when the child's aunt suggested it could be cancer. Thankfully, she took the possibility seriously because, after Taylor was examined by a doctor, it was determined that he had a rare childhood eye cancer called Retinoblastoma. The disease, which reportedly grows rapidly, affects 200 to 300 children in the United States and can result in the removal of the eye or death if not detected early and treated.
Treadwell says she noticed the spot in his eye in photos of Taylor that were taken when he was a baby, but she just assumed it was a camera flash. I can't honestly say that, before reading this story, I would have thought it was anything more than that, either.
It turned out Taylor had three small tumors in his left eye and a larger one in his right, which tore his retina and left him blind in that eye. He was treated for four months with chemotherapy and, thank god, it was successful in shrinking his tumors.
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We're not trying to scare the pants off of you, even though I will admit I am going to grab my iPhone as soon as I finish writing this post and photograph my two small children because this just scared the pants off of me. The best parents our children can have are well-informed parents. As long as you have a camera with a flash, you can photograph your child and see whether a white spot or "shadow" appears in one or both pupils. If it does, have him or her examined immediately to be safe.
This video explains the campaign to promote awareness of this particular kind of eye cancer:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
Did you know that you could detect eye cancer in children with a camera?
Image via YouTube.com