Mum's warning after subtle change in baby son's eye led to devastating, fatal cancer diagnosis

A grieving mum whose baby died after a devastating cancer diagnosis is spreading an urgent warning to parents to 'trust their instincts'. Jessica, 35, and Lee Neal, 38, noticed a subtle change in their son Ted's eye which turned out to be a very rare but deadly cancer.

The couple noticed a difference in their baby's eye whilst on holiday in Wales and saw his face begin to swell. They initially thought he had subbed sand into his eye at the beach - but Jessica had a gut feeling something wasn’t right.

Tests then revealed Ted had a cancerous tumour in one of his sinuses, but it was so rare it didn't even have a name until January 2022. Ted was diagnosed with unspecified sarcoma, which has now been named as mesenchymal chondrosarcoma, which completely changed his whole face within just a week.

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The 16-month-old had chemotherapy and surgery but sadly the cancer spread to his brain and down his spinal cord and Ted died on April 9 2022.

Despite the heartbreak of losing her son so young, Jessica is glad she trusted her instincts and went into the hospital when she did as she says it gave her "eight more happy months with him."

Jessica, a product developer from Nottingham, said: “I’m so glad I trusted my instincts as I think we would have lost him sooner if I hadn’t. It gave us that eight months with him.

“His eye hadn’t swelled that much when I took him in but I just had a feeling and within a week his face had completely changed and we had the diagnosis.

“Suddenly he was started on chemotherapy and our lives had changed. He battled so hard and he was such a happy boy though it all.

“Sadly he lost his life when the cancer spread to