A cell phone camera’s flash recently helped one father in the UK detect something off about his son, eventually leading to a cancer diagnosis.
Owen Scrivens noticed that in the photo, one of his son’s eyes was white where it should have been red, as a result of the camera’s flash going off.
“There’d been nothing else wrong, although after we noticed the eye color he started to develop a bit of a squint,” Owen Scrivens told METRO.
After Scrivens researched what could be causing the discoloration in then-14-month-old Jaxson’s eye, he took him to the doctor to have a proper investigation of the white spot. His son was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, which is a rare cancer that typically starts in the retina.
“I looked through some old photos, and you actually can see the point where it changes in late November,” Scrivens said.
Doctors were able to put the young patient on a chemotherapy treatment that has shrunk the tumor to a third of its original size.
“It’s going insanely well, and we’re so proud of him,” Scrivens said.
Unfortunately, Jaxson’s cancer will never fully go away, but his doctors remain hopeful that he’ll be able to live life and manage the disease.
“His sight is alright – they can’t do a proper eye test but from what they’ve found, he’s missing a bit of tunnel vision,” Scrivens said.
The family started a GoFundMe page to raise a small amount of money for Jaxson’s many medical bills. They said they’re more focused on raising awareness about retinoblastoma.
“Some children at the hospital had both their eyes removed, which is horrible, and we want people to catch it early,” Scrivens said. “It’s something so simple to spot, it doesn’t come up in every photo and not everyone will be able to spot it but a lot of people will.”
