Warning after boy, 1, gets devastating diagnosis after symptoms appeared 'out of nowhere'
07.06.2024 - 08:55
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A grandmother wants others to remember "one word" if youngsters around them suddenly get unexplained black eyes - after her grandson was diagnosed with a devastating disease.
The bruises around one-year-old Paul-Joseph's eyes appeared 'out of nowhere', his nan Clare Power said. "He started getting these black eyes that turned yellow. It was weird cause then as time went on they just got blacker," Clare, 48, said.
"The first day or so we thought he maybe fell but within a week they just kept going darker and darker," she told the Liverpool Echo.. "It all came around so quickly because before this he was perfectly fine.
READ MORE: 'My son was standing in the crowd at Parklife. In an instant everything changed'
"He started deteriorating fast after this. He wasn't eating well and he wasn't drinking either. We just knew there was something wrong."
Clare's partner and Paul-Joseph's other nan, Lisa Power-Smith, 47, took him to Alder Hey Children's Hospital to be checked over.
Here, the couple received the devastating news that Paul-Joseph, who turns two next month, had a rare form of invasive neuroblastoma stage 4 cancer. The cancer develops from immature nerve cells found in several areas of the body.
Before the diagnosis, health professionals feared Paul-Joseph was being beaten at home because of his eyes. As a result, social services became involved with the family, something Clare understands needed to happen given the circumstances.
Grandmother-of-six Clare, a carer and Neston Market stall owner from Birkenhead, Wirral, said: "We were an absolute mess. It was such a blur looking back - we fostered him so we had been through all the security checks."
"I would rather social services be overprotective of kids than