Darwin-based mother Akshata Rao first spotted the large white spot in her son Aayaan’s eye when he was just over a year old, after looking at a photo taken using flash photography.
“Then every time we took a picture with the camera’s flash we would see the white glow like a cat’s eye,” Akshata, from Darwin told News.com.au.
She couldn’t see the white spot with her naked eye but everytime she took a photo with flash, a white spot in Aayaan’s right eye starred back at her.
Aayaan’s parents took him to see the doctors in Darwin but the doctors told Akshata there was nothing to be worried about.
“But I still felt something was wrong,” she says.
In 2013, while on a family holiday to India, they took Aayaan to an eye specialist in Bengaluru who suspected something was wrong and conducted further tests.
Source: News Corp Australia
Tests revealed Aayaan had a rare kind of cancer that affects children under five – retinoblastoma.
The white spot reflecting in the photo was a tumour that had been growing on his retina, which had become detached from his right eyeball, and was getting very close to his optic nerve connecting to his brain.
Aayaan underwent surgery in Bengaluru and had his right eye completely removed. He also underwent chemotherapy sessions before being given the all clear.
“It would have been life threatening if left undiagnosed. We wanted to take no chances,” his mum says.
Aayaan is now in Year 1 at school and cancer-free.
His mum says he has adapted well to life with one eye.
“We were so lucky that we noticed the white reflection in his photos,” she says.
“I’m very scared to think of what might have happened if we didn’t.”
