Mum Spots Cancer In Son’s Eye While Browsing Through Family Photos

A mother has revealed how browsing through a set of family photographs helped save her son’s life.

According to Mirror UK, as Zak Sutherland’s mum, Stacey, looked at pictures of her four children on board the Polar Express, she noticed a white pupil in her youngest’s eye.

“We went on the Polar Express and I noticed his left eye had a flashing white mark,” said Stacey, a full-time mum to Evan, six, Tyler, four, Jonah, three, and Zak.

“I went through the other symptoms, as he also had a twitch, and I knew something wasn’t right.”

Concerned by what she saw, the mum-of-four contacted medics and the 20-month-old was later diagnosed with retinoblastoma – a rare type of eye cancer that affects children under five.

The youngster is now undergoing laser eye treatment and a gruelling course of chemotherapy to reduce the size of the tumour.

Zak must return to the hospital in Birmingham every four to six weeks to continue his treatment.

Stacey said: “The more time goes by the more positive feedback we are getting. It’s just one of those things. It is still early days but you have got to be hopeful.”

Zak’s parents originally noticed a twitch in his eye but after taking the pictures on the iPhone Stacey pushed for an earlier appointment at the hospital.

She said: “Everyone patted me on the back. When we attended our first appointment we were told they don’t usually spot tumours that small and they didn’t usually detect them until they were much further gone. They found Zak’s so quickly and they were overjoyed they could do something to help. If we had waited to get him checked out it would have been a different story. He might not have been able to keep his eye. It was a big relief.”