A five-year-old boy has been diagnosed with an ultra-rare cancer - which was discovered only after a routine eye test. The Mirror reports that Tyler Keys, from Essex, was diagnosed with choroid plexus carcinoma, a rare type of brain cancer.
Tyler, who attends the Great Dunmow Primary School, was first referred to doctors after his teacher noticed irregularities in his learning. His parents, Jenna Grant and Boyd Keys said the quick spot from his teacher saved his life.
Jenna said: "We kept saying thank you so much because she effectively saved his life. If it went on undetected for any longer it would have been much worse."
Tyler's teacher first noticed something was wrong after alerting his parents of his trouble focusing during class. She suggested some one-to-one sessions with Tyler and his parents to help track his learning more closely.
Jenna, a clinical coder, said: "We had a parent's evening and were discussing how he was getting on at school, and it was said that he had some trouble focusing. So one of the teachers said she would do one-to-one to see where he was struggling with.
"Afterwards, she said he's finding it hard to read along with her and he finds it difficult to see the words. And with one of the pictures, he was shown a fireman but he said it was a man holding an umbrella, so she thought his eyesight was not so good."
On February 4, Tyler was taken to Specsavers to have an eye test done, but his optician noticed some swelling in his optical nerve. Immediately they alerted the hospital and just three hours later, the hospital rang them up to see Tyler urgently.
"The doctor had a look at his eyes and said he had bilateral swelling of his optical disc", she said. "We brought him back the following Friday for an ultrasound over his eyelid and they found nothing there."
The doctor wanted to ensure everything was alright with Tyler and sent him for an MRI scan later on in the day. Later on, Tyler's parents would be informed of some heartbreaking news.
"The doctors wanted to make sure everything was 100 per cent and sent him for an MRI for half three in the afternoon", she said. "Soon after they called for us and I thought we were being taken to do a blood test but they took us into a room without Tyler. It was awful because we weren't expecting that news at all."
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On February 12, Tyler and his family drove to Great Ormand Street hospital, for surgery to try to remove the tumour - now the size of a golf ball. Two days later on Valentine's Day, Tyler had his surgery and was successful in removing all of the brain tumour.
But just a week later, they would be informed that Tyler's cancer would require more treatment.
"From what he could see, the surgeon managed to remove it all and did another MRI the next day to check and this was confirmed," Jenna said. "The following Tuesday, the surgeon rang up and they said he had a cancer of a type which will require further treatment."
Jenna says although the news was heart-breaking, she suspected it would come back as this. She said: "With my background with my job, I've seen that younger children can get benign tumours but oftentimes it's benignant.
"I think I knew in the back of my mind it was more than likely going to come back as that. But when she told us it was a rare type, it makes you sink because you think they're not going to know as much about it or have treatment.
Tyler is now undergoing multiple cycles of chemotherapy but is said to remain energetic and "cheeky" as ever.
"He had his first cycle on the sixth to the 10th of March and we have a three-week break then back for five days, then three weeks break and so on", she said. "Up until now he's done really well and still active and still cheeky but he still does get scared with any intervention."
The family has now set up a GoFundMe to raise money to help support them as they take time off to attend Tyler's chemotherapy. Tyler's father, Boyd said his son is hoping to one day meet his favourite football player Bukayo Saka.
The GoFundMe is less than £1,000 away from its target of £20,000. Jenna said: "It's been overwhelming, I don't think we've said thank you so much in our life. but we built a really good community.
Boyd added: "We just want people to be aware of our story and get their eyes checked."
To donate to Tyler's GoFundMe, click here.
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