News about Richard Ashton

Elise Seal, from Birmingham , noticed Esmae's right eye had turned from its usual green and brown colour to dark brown, while they were on holiday in June last year. But it was only when they returned home days later she also spotted it had an unusual white 'glow'. The 25-year-old booked an opticians appointment for her then three-year-old, who was referred for further tests and checks. Scans showed she had retinoblastoma - a rare type of eye cancer - which just 44 children in the UK and 300 in the US are diagnosed with every year.

When she was playing in front of the television, Kirstin Smith, 29, a primary school teacher from Shetland, Scotland, noticed a 'cloudy spot' (circled, left) in her two-year-old son Kian's eye. Kirstin's neighbor, a GP, told Kirstin that she should go to the optician to get it checked out right away. Kirstin then took Kian to an eye clinic in Aberdeen, Scotland, where doctors discovered a mass on his eye. The tot was then referred to the Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, where medics there suspected it was a retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer that can affect young children. Kian was admitted in December 2022 when he was admitted to Birmingham Women and Children's Hospital because it is the closest hospital that can treat Kian's cancer.

Isla Palul, a mother from Putney, has told the world that her then-14-month-old daughter Isla Palul (pictured above with a 'white glow' in her eye, inset in hospital, and right with her parents) has eye cancer. Rebecca (centre) and Charlotte Palul (centre-right) and Isla's mothers, Rebecca (centre) and Charlotte Palul (centre-right), noticed her eye moving strangely as she played with toys during Christmas 2020. The mothers called their GP after being concerned that their eye seemed to be 'whizzing' around. Doctors diagnosed Isla, a rare and aggressive form of eye cancer, in January 2021, after weeks of testing. Isla has now undergone chemotherapy, which 'did its job' and reduced the tumour's size. The tot is also receiving medication to keep it under control, but it has been left with reduced vision.