Mobile photo snaps tot Thomas Hale's hidden cancer

May 6 2009 by Joanne Douglas, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

LITTLE Thomas Hale is a typical cheeky eight-month-old.

But the tot has a rare form of cancer which was only diagnosed after his mum Elizabeth Hale took a photograph of him on her new camera phone.

The glare from the camera revealed light sensitive cells in his eye which could not be seen in face-to-face contact.

Mrs Hale and husband Neil, a teacher, were referred to Consultant Ophthalmologist Antonio Aguirre at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary who confirmed it was retinoblastoma.

Mr Aguirre will soon give Thomas’ big sister Beth, four, a check to make sure she is clear, although she is showing no signs.

The couple are now highlighting the rare condition and said they were lucky to get a diagnosis from Mr Aguirre within days at HRI.

Mrs Hale, 32, of Halifax, said: “To look at him before you would never have seen anything was wrong.

“His vision was fine and he was just like any other happy, smiling eight-month-old.

“It was on March 4 when I got a new camera phone and was playing around and taking photographs of the children. “The first picture of Thomas looked unusual so I took a few more and his eyes on them all looked different.”

She spoke to her sister who is a nurse and was advised to take Thomas to a GP.

Days later, they were at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary where they were told Thomas had retinoblastoma – a cancer which affects children under the age of five.

Thomas has four tumours, one in his left eye which reflects back on the camera while the other three are in his right eye.

Since the diagnosis they have to travel to Birmingham Children’s Hospital every three weeks for laser treatment and to St James’s Hospital in Leeds where Thomas has chemotherapy.