This was the picture of Isla that alerted Richard and Julie to Isla's condition. A flash photograph is often the first indication of retinoblastoma
Retinoblastoma is a rare form of childhood eye cancer. News Shopper editor RICHARD FIRTH had never heard of the condition until his two-year-old daughter Isla was diagnosed with it. In World Retinoblastoma Awareness Week, he tells his story.
ON TUESDAY, October 2, 2007, I was sitting in a hotel room in Preston, Lancashire, contemplating my evening meal.
I was on a course looking at newspaper website development and we had some homework.
As I was preparing for a robust evening in the bar, my phone rang. It was my wife, Julie, 75 miles away, with a piece of news which would tear my heart open.
My baby daughter, Isla, had cancer.
We had first spotted something in one of her eyes about a month earlier. It is difficult to describe what it looked like - sort of like a cat's eye in the road. What it was, according to our GP, was a tumour called retinoblastoma, a rare childhood cancer.
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We were sent to Birmingham Children's Hospital, less than a week after the GP first took a look at little Isla.
The purpose of this visit was for the doctors to have a good look in Isla's eyes and ascertain the extent of the tumour.
They were already fairly sure there was no problem with Isla's left eye (retinoblastoma often occurs in both eyes) but they needed to be sure.
The surgeon told us the tumour had detached Isla's retina. As a result, she had not seen anything out of her right eye for quite a while.
We were stunned. Isla's just a normal little girl, there was nothing at all in her behaviour to suggest she could not see out of one eye.
The size of the tumour meant we were to learn another new word that day - enucleation - the removal of the eye, the only sensible course of treatment for Isla.
They carefully explained what would happen next. We were to go back to Birmingham in a week when the eye would be taken out. The eye, the tumour and part of the optic nerve would then be sent off for careful examination.
The risk with retinoblastoma is the tumour can reach the part of the eye which contains blood vessels. If it does, it can spread to other parts of the body. Even if it looks as though the tumour has tried to spread, they give children chemotherapy, just to be on the safe side.
We drove down to Birmingham again the following Monday and Isla was taken down for surgery.
Before we knew it, Isla was back on the ward with us and awake. We had been told to
expect her to still be in hospital on the Wednesday but her strength returned and, as Tuesday progressed, she started eating and playing. By 5pm Tuesday, we were out.
For the next few days we waited to hear if Isla would need debilitating chemotherapy.
Despite the major surgery, Isla was her normal self. She had antibiotics and a few painkillers but the pain subsided within a couple of days.
The threat of chemotherapy hovered over us all, with neither Julie nor I sleeping much - and then the call came - she was in the clear, the tumour hadn't got through to the dangerous part of the eye and there was no need for chemo.
Isla now has regular appointments in Birmingham and at the artificial eye clinic in Maidstone but the worst of it is hopefully behind us.
I had heard it said people moan about the NHS until they actually use it and that is a view to which I would wholeheartedly subscribe. There is not many things in life as stressful as being told your two-year-old daughter has cancer but we were - and continue to be - treated
superbly well by the staff at Birmingham.
The thing to cling onto is Isla's cured, she is home and she is just like she was before.
We are lucky to have a child to love, nurture and protect and I will never take that for granted again.
i really dont know how i would react to what you have gone through,but i wish isla all the luck in the world.and she is still a beautiful child,all the best to her mum and dad.
i really dont know how i would react to what you have gone through,but i wish isla all the luck in the world.and she is still a beautiful child,all the best to her mum and dad.
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