A Tiny Bloodshot Eye. Then a Cancer Doctors Had Never Seen There Before.

At first, it looked like nothing. A bloodshot eye on a nine-month-old baby. Megan was told it could be a harmless broken blood vessel — the kind that often clears on its own.

Then Nuala’s left eye began to change shape. It started pushing forward.

What followed was a diagnosis so rare that specialists at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool said they had never encountered it in that location: alveolar soft part sarcoma, an extremely uncommon cancer growing behind the eye. Only about six people in England are diagnosed with this type of tumour each year. Nuala was just 10 months old.

Surgeons first tried to remove the tumour while saving the eye. Cancer cells were still found at the edge of the tissue they took out.

Her parents then faced two painful options. Radiotherapy, which could seriously affect the development of that side of her face. Or surgery to remove the eye and surrounding tissue.

They chose the operation they believed gave their daughter the best chance for the future.

Two weeks after her first birthday, Nuala lost her left eye.

By January 2024 she was well enough to ring the hospital’s end-of-treatment bell. But doctors still had another problem. Traditional prosthetic eyes often require making a physical mould of the socket — something extremely difficult and distressing for a toddler.

Specialists from Alder Hey and Aintree University Hospital found another way. Using MRI scans, CT images and photographs, they digitally recreated the shape of Nuala’s face and designed a custom prosthesis without putting her through the invasive moulding process.

By 20 months old, Nuala was adapting to life with sight in one eye, attending nursery and learning to walk. Her mother later shared their experience as Sarcoma UK called for greater awareness of the unusual symptoms these rare cancers can sometimes cause.

A tiny change in one baby’s eye led to a cancer diagnosis, life-saving surgery, and an innovative way to give her back part of what the disease had taken.

Would you have ever imagined that a persistent bloodshot eye could be a warning sign of something this rare?

Sources: Alder Hey Children’s Hospital; BBC News; Liverpool Echo; Sky News; The Independent; Sarcoma UK. Story of Nuala Mulholland, Liverpool, 2023–2024.