A mum feared her four-year-old son was ‘going to die’ after a ‘white glow’ she spotted in his eye turned out to be a rare form of cancer.
Maria Simeonidis has recalled how an ‘awful’ ordeal saw her young son, Isaac, diagnosed with retinoblastoma and go through multiple medical procedures to try and save his life.
Isaac was celebrating his third birthday in June 2024 by watching the popular children’s TV cartoon Paw Patrol with his older brother, Simeon, when Maria noticed a glow in his right eye.
The worry turned to fear when her partner, Matthew Comley, said he had noticed the glow previously.
“Matthew said to me, ‘Oh yeah, do you mean his right eye?’ I immediately thought, s**t, how does he know what eye I mean?” Maria said.
“I thought no matter what it is, it definitely isn’t anything good.”
After leaping into action, a local optician revealed they could see something at the back of Isaac’s right eye, and he was transferred to Royal Bournemouth Hospital, which then referred him to the retinoblastoma centre at Royal London Hospital.
Maria said: “After he did his examination, it all went quiet. He called his assistant in, and then I knew. The quietness of it all was very unnerving.
“He told me that he can’t diagnose Isaac with a retinoblastoma, but if I was to ask him, he was sure it was one.
“That afternoon was horrible for us; we just didn’t know what was going to happen. Would Isaac be okay, or would he die? It was just a horrible day.”
It was at the Royal London Hospital where the devastating cancer diagnosis was finally confirmed.
“When doctors told me that Isaac had a retinoblastoma, I started crying,” Maria recalled. “As a worst-case scenario, I thought it might be a retinoblastoma, but people were telling me it was so rare and it could be a cataract.
“I just knew something was wrong, and as a parent, you have to trust your gut.