I lost my eye to cancer as a baby – now I have a glow in the dark eyeball

seemed perfectly healthy until she was 18 months old and a doctor spotted something strange in her eye.

He asked her parents for pictures of her and saw a sure sign that something was amiss.

Her right eye appeared to be emitting a glow in the image - a key sign of cancer or eye disease.

In October 1991, Rachel, now 32, was diagnosed with retinoblastoma.

This is a cancer that is found in the retina and most commonly affects young children.

Doctors explained there was no chance of saving the eye and it had to be removed urgently to prevent the illness spreading.

Four days later, the youngster had the eyeball removed and luckily, she says she doesn't remember much of her journey.

Now Rachel is raising awareness of the condition and has even grown the confidence to experiment with different prosthetics.

She was fitted with her first prosthetic when she was 20-months-old and recalls not being massively affected by having just one eye and always wore a prosthetic.

However children nicknamed her “Cyclopes” as a result.

But it wasn’t until her mid-20s that she suffered any self-confidence issues, after having a surgery designed to replace the implant holding her prosthetic in place.

Rachel, who lives in Portland, Oregon, US said after surgery and the healing process, her eye lost most of its ability to blink.