A heartbroken mother has recalled how her three-year-old son’s eye ‘glazed over’ after she had suspected he had conjunctivitis. It was this one and only symptom that led to a devastating diagnosis of a rare type of eye cancer, called Retinoblastoma on April 14. The toddler’s mum Jade Williams, says her little boy has now completely lost sight in that eye due to the aggressive tumour which is growing and will need removing.
She says he experienced barely any symptoms until she noticed he had a ‘glassy, glazed’ left eye. “There were hardly any symptoms and I would’ve never thought this was it,” she told the Mirror.
“His eye started looking glassy and glazed and I thought it was conjunctivitis. He kept saying his eye was ‘sunny’. Then I noticed he was getting worse and the pupil was getting more red.”
Jade consulted a friend who works at Specsavers, who told her to take pictures of Rhys’ eyes and to ping them across to an optomerist. While his right eye appeared normal, with a black pupil, his left was white.
From here Jade was urged to rush her son to A&E where he underwent days of tests – only to be given the horrific diagnosis. According to medics, this is the most aggressive type of tumour growing in his left eye.
Jade added: “I went into survival mode and thought, ‘I have to be strong for my son’, but when I put the kids to bed, that’s when I broke down. You cannot prepare yourself, it was a sinking feeling.”
Rhys has two older brothers, Kayden 11, Theo, nine and a four month old younger brother, Arthur. For the time being, Rhys now has to visit the Oncology unit at Birmingham Children’s Hospital every four weeks. It’s just one of two hospitals in the UK to do these sorts of treatments.
For the tot and his family, it’s a case of waiting to see if the tumour shrinks. If it doesn’t by the next round of chemotherapy, the little boy will need his eye removing entirely.
“There’s nothing worse than seeing him in pain,” Jade, 29, said. “It’s heartbreaking and I cry at every single appointment.” Despite the tragic circumstances, Rhys is being incredibly brave and still enjoys helping Jade with baby Arthur.
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“He loves playing football and we were about to start him in a team before all this, which is a shame”, his mum said. “He also loves pretend play, and will be a doctor or a builder. He also loves wrestling with his older brothers still.
“He knows he has a poorly eye, and while we don’t hide the word ‘cancer’ around him, he just knows he has to go to the doctors because he’s unwell.”
With the repeated treatment and Jade looking after a newborn as well as her two older sons, she and partner Chris Friery, as well as Rhys’ dad Kurt are splitting the care between themselves.
This means they have to move their shifts around and take time off for hospital visits. Jade is also self employed so is not receiving an income while she is on maternity leave. “We are co-parenting amazingly,” she said. “We also have an amazing support network in friends and family.
Jade has put together a fundraiser to raise vital funds to help her family through this difficult time. Not only that, she is also donating a portion of the proceeds to the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust to raise money for care packages for parents who are in the same position as her own.
“The hospital has been amazing,” she said. “We couldn’t be more grateful to the doctors and nurses for their care. We wanted to help others in our position, and we thought this was the best way.”
The family has already smashed their £1,000 target with the GoFundMe page at more than a staggering £3,700, as they wait another week to find out if little Rhys’ tumour has shrunk.
