A mother has shared a warning after her young daughter lost one of her eyes due to a rare condition.
25-year-old Kara Wedderburn is a mother of two who spoke out to warn other parents in an attempt to prevent what had happened to her 3-year-old daughter from happening to other children.
As the young lady revealed, her daughter, Evie Wedderburn, was just one year old when she was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer known as retinoblastoma.
While Kara and her husband, Ryan, initially thought that the white spot on their daughter’s eye was just a scratch, tests revealed that the little girl was actually suffering from a cancerous tumor.
After the “devastating” news, the now-3-year-old quickly began with exhausting radiotherapy and chemotherapy only for the growths to continue developing and spreading.
To save Evie’s life, doctors were eventually forced to perform grueling surgery and remove the girl’s right eye.
“Being told she had cancer was just devastating. I was pregnant with Evie’s sister, Olivia, when she was diagnosed, and we felt like our world had been ripped apart,” Kara recalled.
“Evie was absolutely fine in herself – that was what was so frustrating. We had no idea what the signs were or what to be looking for, but we’d never even heard of retinoblastoma.”
The parents also took the ordeal as an opportunity to speak out and warn others about the retinoblastoma symptoms they should watch out for.
“At a certain angle, there was a white coating on Evie’s right eye. Our Labrador Callie had recently scratched her forehead accidentally and we thought she could have caught her eye on her paw,” the mother added.
After the white patch failed to disappear for weeks, Kara and Ryan grew concerned and took Evie for a checkup to the family’s GP who referred them to another hospital.
“We’d never heard of retinoblastoma and we were being told she was going to lose her eye because the tumor she had was that big,” Kara added.
“She was diagnosed at the RVI on January 13, and we were in Birmingham days later for her to be examined under anesthetic on January 17.
“Straightaway, we thought, ‘Well that’s it, her eye’s coming out,’ but they told us we could try and save it and that’s the route we went down. It was just such a shock. I’d been Googling as any mother does and thought, ‘It’s not going to be something like that. Ryan and I were both just devastated. We couldn’t believe it.’”
Sadly, Evie’s condition continued to worsen over the following year and she developed additional tumors in her right eye despite all the treatment.
“Her cancer was very aggressive. Every retinoblastoma is unique, but hers is very hard to control. Her optic nerve tumor doubled in size just in one week,” Kara explained.
“Even morphine wasn’t helping her. It was awful. They said we could try and treat it but we were risking Evie’s life if we tried as there was a chance it could spread. There was no other option.
“Evie’s health was the priority. You do wonder are we torturing her, should we keep going, but now she’s had the operation she’s like a different child.”
Though she had lost her eye, Evie is now a much happy child as she is no longer suffering from grueling pain and exhausting chemotherapy. She has since also received a temporary prosthetic eye that will be replaced by a permanent one after she fully recovers from the surgery.
Warning other parents to act fact should they spot suspicious white patches in their children’s eyes, Kara added:
“My advice to other people in this position is to go straight to your GP or local hospital if you suspect anything, as early diagnosis can mean a much quicker journey and a lot less invasive treatment for your child.”
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