Seamus McClafferty and his wife Elaine, from Creggan, say they discovered their daughter Brooke had a rare form of eye cancer after spotting a picture of an American baby who has the same condition.

Little Brooke was rushed to Altnagelvin Hospital where experts broke the news to her parents that she had the cancer - retinoblastoma, - which affects just six children in Ireland every year.

She will now have to begin a gruelling three month course of chemotherapy to try to shrink the tumours behind her eye and save her sight.

Last night the couple said that, if they hadn’t read the story of American baby Rowan Santos who was diagnosed with the condition after a Manchester woman spotted the glint in an e-mailed picture, they could have gone on not realising that Brooke had the condition.

Godsend

Her father Seamus said: “It’s crazy, honest to God, the article saved her life. I had never heard of the disease. There was no sign of illness, she was feeding as normal, that’s what’s scary. I was flicking through the paper when I realised the picture of the boy’s eye looked just like Brooke’s. If we hadn’t seen that we would have been none the wiser, it was a Godsend.”

He said the family was in shock after hearing the news.

“You hear cancer and you think the worst,” he said. “We had a choice of three specialists and we chose to go to Dublin.”

Brooke has now been examined by specialist Professor Michael O’Keefe in Dublin who discovered she had two minor tumours behind her left eye and a massive tumour behind her right eye.

“Professor O’Keefe told us that had it been seven or eight months down the line, it wouldn’t have looked good,” said Seamus.

“Early detection is key, it’s just a fluke we caught it.”

Seamus said Brooke has been amazing throughout the ordeal. “The wee critter has just so good throughout all the tests. Either Elaine or I are carriers but we never knew and none of our other kids have it.

“Brooke will be tested when she’s older to see if she’s a carrier so she knows how to deal with it when she gets older.

“She could lose her eyesight in her right eye, it depends on whether the chemo can shrink the tumours. But to be honest we are just happy she is alive.”