I wanted to share this adorable picture of baby Charlotte with you. Her mom, Sara, gave me permission to post it in hopes of spreading awareness of an easy to detect childhood cancer called Retinoblastoma. She wrote more about it here on her blog:
Sara’s Blog
What makes this cancer different is that we have a tool in our homes that can detect a typical symptom early on: a camera!
Since the tumor is inside the eye it affects how light from the flash of a camera is reflected back in low light conditions. Normally we get that red-eye effect due to the blood vessels in the back of the eye. In an eye affected by Retinoblastoma however, that reflection in white.
Knowing this information you can easily detect by looking at Charlotte’s picture, which eye is affected by Retinoblastoma and which eye is healthy.
On a technical note: some cameras digitally alter the color in a process called red-eye-reduction and pictures may appear to show white eyes due to that digital alteration. If your camera offers red-eye-reduction, please turn it off, if you are trying to take a picture for this purpose.