‘Thank you’ fundraiser for Bootle baby diagnosed with rare eye cancer

A race night fundraiser is being held to raise awareness and support for a young Bootle family whose son was diagnosed with a rare eye cancer.

Oliver Furnival, who’s just eight months old, has retinoblastoma, a cancerous tumour that affects only around 40 or 50 children each year.

Funds from Race Night for Oliver at Mel Inn Social Club on November 1 will be donated to the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust, the charity that has supported Oliver’s mum, Olivia Hannaford, and dad Tom, since they were given the heartbreaking news just four months ago.

Olivia, 29, from Bootle, says:

“The charity have been amazing, and they’ve taken a lot of the worry away from us.

“Oliver has to have his cancer treatment in Birmingham so they organise a hotel for us to stay in the night before, and they’ve given us a support worker to guide us through and help us as Oliver goes through his treatment.

“I don’t know how we’d have managed without them.”

She adds:

“Thankfully, while Oliver will never have 20-20 vision, the doctors are hopeful that they can rid him of the tumour and save some of his sight in the eye that’s affected.

“That’s a far more positive outcome than the one I first feared, when I thought I might lose my son.”

Oliver is the first child of beautician Olivia, and Tom, 29, who works for the DWP in Bootle.

And while everything seemed normal when he was first born, Olivia soon noticed that something was wrong with her beautiful boy.

“Oliver was diagnosed when he was five months old,” explains Olivia. “But it was when he was coming up to four months that I started to get worried about his right eye, it just didn’t seem to be as focused as his other one when he was looking at anything – and he’s a very nosy child,” she smiles.

“He stares at everything.

“I asked other people if it looked different, but they thought it was fine.”

Olivia wondered if it was showing signs of a turn which can be caused by nerve or muscle problems and contacted her health visitor who referred her to Alder Hey: “I thought he might need glasses.”

But when she and Tom returned from a short trip to Glastonbury ‘where we got engaged two weeks before we found out’, she realised it was getting worse.

“When he was looking a certain way there was a glow in his eye, like a full white shadow,” says Olivia. “I contacted Alder Hey as we were waiting for an appointment and they said to send photos.

“When they asked us to go in, I felt sick.”

After a series of tests and scans Oliver was diagnosed with retinoblastoma which would need to be treated at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital:

“My first thought when I heard the word cancer was that Oliver might die.

“I can’t even remember walking out of the hospital, everything was just a blur. You never think it will happen to you and, for a moment, my world just fell apart.”

Olivia and Tom faced the possibility that their son might lose his eye because of the condition, that only affects children under five. But consultants were keen to try targeted chemotherapy to shrink the tumour and then laser treatment to break up the tumour ‘and effectively kill it’.

“He’s had three rounds of chemotherapy so far and it seems to be working well and, while Oliver’s retina has become detached and will need to be reattached (if it doesn’t reconnect itself) the cancer hadn’t touched the lens which is a good sign.”

Oliver will always have a lump in his eye and his family are expecting varying levels of vision once his treatment is completed: “They are going to assess Oliver in a couple of weeks to see if he needs a fourth chemo, and then they’ll see if he needs more again after the laser treatment.

“Hopefully that will be it, and it will never return.”

Tests have fortunately revealed it’s not genetic in Oliver’s case, and Olivia says:

“We’ve been told that while he won’t be able to be a surgeon or a pilot, or be in the army, if everything goes well, Oliver will be able to function perfectly well and see colours, or shadows or, even objects. Tom’s hoping he’ll still be able to play for Liverpool!”

Keen to be supportive Tom’s close friend John McGunigle, player/manager of Sefton OA community football club of which Tom is open age team manager, organised the Race Night to raise money for the charity and the couple – Tom’s had to take time of work and Olivia has given up work while she cares for Oliver and takes him for appointments, sometimes at a moment’s notice.

But she says:

“It was so kind of John, but we will manage, so everything from the night will go to the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust.

“We are so lucky to have them there to support us, and to have such incredible friends who want to be there for us and help us like they do. They’ve all made a really difficult time easier to cope with.

“The night will also mean that, as well as raising money, we can raise awareness so parents can look out for any signs and spot them early.”

John McGunigle has set up a Collctiv page to raise funds and is appealing for a sponsor for the evening as well as raffle and auction prizes to help collect as much as possible.