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The parents of a toddler being treated in Birmingham have told of the devastating moment they discovered she would lose her eye to cancer.

Ava Grace, the now-three-year-old daughter of Vicki Cooper-Bird, 37, and Ian Bird, 40, was diagnosed with retinoblastoma – cancer of the retina – shortly after her first birthday in 2023. The rare cancer affects between 40 and 50 people each year, usually children under five, and has cost Ava her right eye.

“Ava’s diagnosis, it was completely blindsiding,” Vicki, who lives in Port Talbot, South Wales, told PA Real Life.

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“We had no idea, nothing.”

Ava had been a happy and healthy little girl, but everything changed when she was 14-months-old.

After

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