Nuala’s Fight: The Baby Who Lost an Eye but Won Her Life.2382

💗 Nuala’s Fight — The Little Girl Who Lost an Eye but Won Her Life 💗

In August 2023, Megan noticed something strange about her baby girl.
Nine-month-old Nuala, always smiling, always curious, had woken up one morning with a

bloodshot eye.

At first, Megan and her husband didn’t think much of it. Babies rub their eyes all the time, and she had been teething and fussing the night before. The GP confirmed what they expected — a

subconjunctival hemorrhage, a small burst blood vessel that usually heals within a week.

But a mother’s heart knows when something isn’t right.
And Megan’s heart wouldn’t rest.

💔 The First Signs

A few days later, she began to notice the subtle but unmistakable changes — the eye wasn’t healing, and worse, it was starting to bulge slightly.

At first, she tried to convince herself it was the lighting, or maybe swelling from rubbing. But when her husband mentioned it too, she knew this was no illusion.

Back to the GP they went. This time, the doctor frowned, clearly concerned. He advised them to go straight to A&E, just to rule out anything serious.

At the hospital, doctors examined Nuala and saw what her parents saw — the redness, the protrusion — but after a few tests, they reassured the family and sent them home with a

routine ophthalmology referral.

It should have been comforting.
But it wasn’t.

“I knew in my heart something wasn’t right,” Megan said later. “So I pushed for an earlier appointment.”

That instinct — the quiet, relentless voice of a mother’s intuition — would end up saving Nuala’s life.

⚕️ The Diagnosis

Just two days later, Nuala was seen by a specialist. They dilated her pupils, examined her eyes, and quickly ordered

scans and ultrasounds.

As the tests progressed, Megan’s heart sank. She was a nurse, and she knew what it meant when multiple doctors began gathering in the room.


When radiology scheduled an urgent MRI within days, her hands began to shake.

“I understood how serious it was,” she said softly.

The MRI results came back.
And the words no parent should ever have to hear followed.

There was a tumor behind Nuala’s eye.

Further tests began immediately. A biopsy was performed. At first, doctors suspected rhabdomyosarcoma — a rare cancer but one that could potentially respond to chemotherapy.


But after weeks of waiting, that initial diagnosis was ruled out.

What followed were eight long weeks of uncertainty, fear, and sleepless nights. The family spent every day holding onto hope, even as their world seemed to tilt on its axis.

Then, in late October, the final results arrived.
It wasn’t rhabdomyosarcoma. It was worse.

Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma — an extremely rare, aggressive, and chemo-resistant form of cancer.

There was only one option.


Surgery.

💔 The Hardest Decision

The word itself — exenteration — was clinical, cold, and terrifying.
It meant removing Nuala’s entire left eye, the tumor behind it, and the surrounding muscles and tissue.

It was radical.
It was life-altering.
But it was also the only way to save her.

Megan remembers the night she and her husband sat in the hospital room after meeting with the surgical team.

“We didn’t sleep at all. We just held each other and cried. How do you agree to something like that? How do you sign a consent form that means your baby will lose an eye?”

But deep down, they knew.
They would do anything — anything — to keep her alive.

On December 11th, 2023, just weeks after her first birthday, baby Nuala was wheeled into surgery.

Megan kissed her forehead and whispered, “Be brave, my love. Mommy’s right here.”

🌼 The Long Road Back

The hours crawled by.
Then the surgeon came out, his eyes soft behind his mask.

“It went well,” he said. “We got it all.”

Megan collapsed into tears — tears of grief, relief, gratitude, and exhaustion all at once.

The following days were a blur of recovery.
Nuala, even with bandages wrapped around her tiny face, never stopped amazing the nurses with her resilience. She wanted to play. She wanted to smile.

“She’s a fighter,” one nurse said, gently adjusting her IV.
And she was.

By January 2024, just one month after surgery, the miracle words came:
“Nuala is cancer-free.”

💖 Learning to Live Again

The journey, however, didn’t end there.
Every three months, Nuala goes for check-ups and scans.
She’s being fitted for a prosthetic eye, not just for appearance, but to ensure her skull develops evenly as she grows.

For Megan, the relief of hearing “cancer-free” came with a new challenge — the emotional aftermath.

“It’s been an incredibly emotional journey,” she admits. “I’ve started psychological support for PTSD. Jack, her big brother, has his own challenges too.”

Jack, who was five at the time, had watched his parents come and go from the hospital for months. He had asked hard questions that no child should have to ask:
“Why does Nuala have a bad eye?”
“Will she be okay now?”

Megan answers as gently as she can.

They now face daily questions from curious strangers, and the occasional stare when Nuala’s prosthetic isn’t in. But they’ve learned to smile through it.

“People mean well,” Megan says. “Our story just looks a bit different now. But that’s okay. We take it one day at a time.”

🌈 A Bright Future

Today, Nuala is thriving.
She loves nursery, giggles uncontrollably with her brother, and has a mischievous streak that keeps everyone on their toes.

Her missing eye doesn’t define her — it’s just one small part of an extraordinary story of survival.

“She’s feisty, funny, and full of life,” her mom says proudly. “After everything she’s been through, seeing her happy is the greatest gift.”

For Megan, the experience has changed everything. She’s learned that strength doesn’t always roar — sometimes it whispers through sleepless nights and trembling hands that still hold on.

And for Nuala, every new day is proof that even the smallest warriors can conquer the fiercest battles.

💕 Gratitude and Hope

As the family continues their new chapter, they remain deeply grateful for the support they received from Lennox Children’s Cancer Fund — an organization that provided them with emotional, practical, and financial help when they needed it most.

“They reminded us that we weren’t alone,” Megan says. “They brought light into our darkest days.”

Now, Megan shares their story to help other families facing the same unimaginable challenges.

Because behind every scar is a story of survival.
Behind every prosthetic is proof of healing.
And behind every brave little girl like Nuala is a mother who refused to give up.

🌸 If you want to help families like Nuala’s, please consider supporting the Lennox Children’s Cancer Fund.
Every donation helps provide care, comfort, and hope to children fighting for their lives — one small miracle at a time.

💗 Nuala’s story is not just about loss — it’s about courage, love, and the triumph of life over fear.

Thomas’s Fight — The Boy Who Found Hope When Medicine Failed.2404

💛 Thomas’s Journey — The Boy Who Found Hope When Medicine Ran Out of Answers 💛

Before cancer entered their world, Thomas was just like any other little boy — full of laughter, energy, and boundless curiosity.
He loved exploring, playing with his toys, and clinging tightly to his mum, Abby, whenever she tried to step out of sight.

“He was always a mummy’s boy,” Abby recalls with a soft smile. “He just wanted to be close all the time.”

But no one could have guessed that this clinginess — this need for comfort — would one day feel prophetic.
Because by the time Thomas was two and a half, the life they knew would be turned completely upside down.

🌤 Before Diagnosis

Thomas had been a bright and bubbly toddler, always smiling, always moving.
When he was a baby, he was often unsettled and cried more than other kids, but Abby and her husband John thought it was just part of his personality.

“He wasn’t an easy baby,” Abby admits, “but once he started walking and talking, everything seemed normal. He was happy and full of energy — just a typical little boy.”

Everything changed one summer.
The family was on holiday at the beach in December 2014 — a trip filled with laughter, sandcastles, and sunshine. But just days in, Thomas began vomiting. He was pale, tired, and uninterested in food.

At first, they thought it was a stomach bug.
But when the vomiting continued, Abby’s instincts told her something more was going on.

⚠️ The First Signs

Back home, Thomas was taken to hospital. Doctors diagnosed gastritis — an inflammation of the stomach lining — and sent him home with medication.
But nothing improved.

“The vomiting just wouldn’t stop,” Abby says. “He was exhausted all the time. Then one morning, I noticed his eye — it was turning inwards slightly, almost like it was ‘lazy’. That’s when I knew something wasn’t right.”

They returned to hospital — this time to Monash Children’s.
An emergency MRI was ordered.

Abby and John sat in the waiting room, holding hands, their hearts pounding. When the doctor finally came in, he asked them to sit down.

“He said they’d found a lesion on Thomas’s brain,” Abby remembers. “We didn’t even know what that meant. I asked, ‘Is that serious?’ and he just nodded and said, ‘It’s a very large mass.’”

It was a moment frozen in time — the air sucked out of the room.

“I remember seeing a box of tissues on the table,” Abby says softly. “And that’s when it hit me. This was the kind of room where people get bad news.”

💔 The Diagnosis

The MRI results revealed the truth: Thomas had multiple tumours throughout his brain — and even more along his spinal cord.
Some were large. Others were small. But the worst part was where they were located: deep inside areas that couldn’t be safely operated on.

Abby and John sat speechless as doctors explained the reality — the cancer was slow-growing, but there was no easy fix.
Surgery might help, but it couldn’t remove everything.

“I just kept thinking, this can’t be real,” Abby says. “Cancer was something old people got. How does a two-year-old have brain cancer? It felt ridiculous. Impossible.”

But it was real. And it was only the beginning.

🏥 Treatment and Endless Uncertainty

Thomas underwent surgery to remove what they could of the main tumour.
The operation went well — but the doctors still didn’t know exactly what kind of cancer they were dealing with. Samples were sent across Australia for analysis, but the results came back inconclusive.

Meanwhile, Thomas’s condition worsened.
He developed hydrocephalus — a dangerous build-up of fluid on the brain — and had to have a shunt inserted to drain it.

After surgery, he lost much of his eyesight.

“It was heartbreaking,” Abby recalls. “He’d bump into things — walls, furniture, even other kids. He didn’t understand what was happening.”

Weeks turned into months.
Months into years.

Thomas was in and out of hospital for surgeries to fix his shunt when it blocked, and his parents lived in constant fear — of infections, complications, or worse.

Every MRI brought more questions than answers.

Then, one day, the scan showed a new mass growing inside his brain.
And still, doctors couldn’t agree on what it was — or how to treat it.

“As a parent,” Abby says, “you just can’t process the thought that there might be no way forward. We were devastated. Completely lost.”

🌈 A New Hope — The ZERO Program

In their darkest hour, Abby and John heard about the Zero Childhood Cancer Program (ZERO) — an initiative using genetic testing to find personalised treatments for children who had run out of options.

They applied immediately — and within weeks, Thomas was accepted.

“It felt like someone had thrown us a lifeline,” Abby says. “He was in so much pain. We needed something — anything — that could help.”

Scientists took samples of Thomas’s tumour and ran deep genetic sequencing.
What they found changed everything.

Thomas had a specific mutation believed to be driving the cancer. Even better — there was a drug known to target that mutation: Afatinib, a gene therapy drug originally developed for adult cancers.

It was experimental.
It was uncertain.
But it was a chance.

🌅 The Turning Point

In late 2019, Thomas began Afatinib therapy.
At first, the side effects were rough — nausea, fatigue, loss of appetite. But slowly, things began to shift.

Two months later, an MRI revealed what everyone had been praying for: the tumours were shrinking.

“I remember the day we got the call,” Abby says, smiling through tears. “The doctor said, ‘We’re seeing a real difference.’ For the first time in years, I felt hope.”

Within weeks, Thomas’s energy began to return.
He smiled again. He played. His headaches stopped.

“He started laughing again,” Abby says. “His appetite came back. He’d ask for ice cream, for chips — all the things we hadn’t heard in so long. It was like having our little boy back.”

💛 Today

Today, Thomas is eight years old.
He still takes his gene therapy medication daily, and regular scans keep a close eye on the remaining tumours — but they’ve stopped growing.

The damage to his eyesight is permanent, but it hasn’t stopped him from living his life.
He plays with his sister, tells jokes, and even helps his dad fix things around the house.

He’s not cured — not yet — but he’s thriving.

“I don’t know what we would have done without ZERO,” Abby says. “There was no other option for us. It gave us time. It gave us hope.”

🌻 A Family Forever Changed

For Abby and John, every day now feels like a gift.
The beach, once the place where everything fell apart, has become their favourite escape again — the place they go to remind themselves of how far Thomas has come.

“He’s so full of life,” Abby says. “Even on the hard days, he smiles. And that smile reminds us that miracles don’t always come with fireworks. Sometimes, they come quietly — in the form of one more day, one more laugh, one more hug.”

Thomas’s story is one of science, resilience, and love — proof that even when medicine runs out of answers, hope can still write a new chapter.

💛 Because sometimes, it’s not about curing the impossible — it’s about finding the strength to keep going until hope finds you. 💛