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Cancered Eye

Baby boy's eye cancer spotted after he is snapped with mother's camera phone

 

By Daily Mail Reporter

07th May 2009

 

This is the family picture that may have saved the sight of an eight-month-old boy.

 

Thomas Hale has a rare form of cancer, which was diagnosed after his mother took a picture of him on her new camera phone.

 

The glare from the camera revealed light sensitive cells in the youngster's eye which could not be seen in face-to-face contact.

 

His mother Elizabeth, 32, said: 'To look at him before you would never have seen anything was wrong. His vision was fine and he was just like any other happy, smiling eight-month-old.

Thomas Hale who has rare eye cancer

 

This is the family photo of Thomas Hale that could have saved his eyesight. His mother Elizabeth snapped him on her mobile phone

 

'On March 4, I got a new camera phone and was playing around and taking photographs of the children.

 

'The first picture of Thomas looked unusual so I took a few more and his eyes on them all looked different.'

 

After speaking to her sister who is a nurse, Elizabeth and her husband Neil took him to their GP who referred Thomas to Consultant Ophthalmologist Antonio Aguirre at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.

 

Mr Aguirre confirmed Thomas had the rare form of eye cancer retinoblastoma, which affects 50 children under the age of five each year.

 

Thomas has four tumours, one in his left eye which reflects back on the camera while the other three are in his right eye.

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Uploaded on May 9, 2009
Taken on May 10, 2009