Bella O’Neill was just 3 when we took her to Specsavers for a lazy eye. Being a young mum who would have thought 3 weeks later we would find ourselves at The Royal London Hospital seeing Dr. Reddy, hearing words that kept repeating in an echo “Your child has eye cancer, retinoblastoma, and you need to decide what treatment you would like”. At only 23 years of age I couldn’t even comprehend what this was or how I was going to cope. I had two other young children and was a single mum. My head was saying “Did I give her this? What about the others?” It was daunting. I blamed myself a lot and I don’t even know why.
I made the difficult decision to have her eye removed. The whole time I was absolutely in awe of this little girl – she never cried or moaned and I knew that if she was this strong how could I be weak! This girl has achieved everything and more in her life even after every battle she’s been up against. At the age of 10 she was also diagnosed with autism and struggled academically. She had been bullied throughout school and started to hate the way she looked.
She is now in high school, nearly a teenager, and KnowTheGlow has helped her regain her confidence regarding how she looks! She’s an amazing sports person. She plays every sport inside and outside of school and is sensational. We are so thankful for the new found self love KnowTheGlow has given my daughter!
I never even picked up on the Glow until after she was diagnosed and I went back to look through pictures. It’s so important to look at your flash photos and to know about this to save children’s lives!
