Julie Fitzgerald had been worried about strange spots on her 2-year-old son’s eye, but she and her husband originally brushed them off. But she couldn’t get over a nagging doubt that something was wrong with Avery’s eye.
When she saw a viral story on Facebook about how a white glow in a child’s eye indicates cancer, she got worried. The test is very simple – take a photo. So she took a photo of Avery and there was an unmistakable white glow in one of his eyes.
Avery immediately went to the doctors and was diagnosed with retinoblastoma. They said cancerous tumors covered 75 percent of his eye but they had caught the cancer just in time!
“If we did not get this eye out, the cancer would spread to his blood and to his brain,” Fitzgerald told ABC News. “Our lives went from normal to cancer to a cancer survivor in three weeks. It turned out to be our worst nightmare but it saved our son’s life.”
Avery will be getting a prosthetic eye and continue to be tested to see if he is at risk for more cancer. Fitzgerald is sharing her son’s story with the world to hopefully help other families who might not know they’re facing the same risk.
Share the Fitzgerald family’s story with your family!
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