Sunshine Coast mum’s plea after shock cancer find in child’s eye

When a Queensland mum looked at her four-year-old’s eye in the sunlight she knew something was terribly wrong.

Kayden Farrar following surgery to remove his eye.

A Sunshine Coast mum has called for more comprehensive eye tests for kids after her four-year-old’s eye was removed following the shock discovery of a large tumour.

Mum-of-two Caitlin Farrar said she first noticed a worrying detail in four-year-old Kayden’s eye in the weeks after Christmas.

“I noticed it was see-through and I could see this white-metallic colour in his eye, I then booked into the specialist the week after and it started to go a bit bloodshot as well,” Ms Farrar said.

“At first it was just in the sunlight you could see through his eye but then it got to the stage where you could see through it at any time of the day.

“I said to mum straight away ‘I think it’s cancer’.”

Kayden was diagnosed with retinoblastoma late last month and six days later his left eye was removed.

The tumour had grown to take up 85 per cent of Kayden’s eyeball by the time it was noticed, due it being positioned on the back of his eye.

Six days after visiting an eye specialist Kayden’s left eye was removed.

Retinoblastoma is often picked up in photographs taken with a flash, where a white glowing circle can be seen in the centre of the eye, but Ms Farrar said for Kayden this wasn’t the case.

“We’ve looked back at all his photos and you just couldn’t see it,” Ms Farrar said.

Ms Farrar said there were several slight warning signs, but she initially believed it was just a lazy eye.

“He had lately been pulling his hair up, I thought he had been doing it while frustrated but in reality he was just trying to release the pressure building up in his eye,” Ms Farrar said.

Caitlin Farrar noticed her son’s eye was see-through in sunlight.

The Spider-Man-obsessed four-year-old, who was set to begin prep this year, will start five months of chemotherapy this week.

Ms Farrar said she wanted parents to be made aware of the condition and for more widespread testing.

“I had never heard about it,” Ms Farrar said.

“Kayden had been to the GP and got his eyes checked not long before we noticed something was wrong, they had told us everything was completely fine but they don’t have right resources.

“It would be great for every kid before they turn five to get checked properly by a specialist.”

Kayden was set to start prep this year, but will instead spend nearly a half a year going through chemotherapy.

Kayden’s grandmother Samantha Schuetze said had the tumour gone unnoticed for any longer the result would have been “catastrophic”.

“The past few weeks have been like getting hit by a truck,” Ms Schuetze said.

The Farrar family has organised a fundraiser to help raise money for the retinoblastoma unit at the Queensland’s Children Hospital.

For Kayden’s grandmother organising the fundraiser has given her “something positive” to work on during her feelings of helplessness.

The fundraiser with raffles and activities for kids will be held on March 30 at the Beerwah Pub.

A separate GoFundMe to help support the family during Kayden’s treatment has also been launched by a family friend.

Originally published as Sunshine Coast mum’s plea after shock cancer find in child’s eye