Twelve months ago Julie Firth was told every mother’s worst nightmare – her child had cancer.

Daughter Isla was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer. Julie and husband Richard, of Toronto Road, Gillingham, didn’t know if their little girl would survive.

But one year on, Isla is getting ready to start nursery school, something Julie, 35, thought may never happen.

It was discovered Isla had retinoblastoma in October, 2007. This type of cancer is so rare, only 40 to 50 children are diagnosed with it in the UK each year.

Julie noticed a reflection in Isla’s right pupil and took the toddler, who had just celebrated her second birthday, to her GP.

She was immediately referred to a specialist. It was then she was told the heart-breaking news that Isla had a cancerous growth behind her eye.

Julie said: “It felt like my heart had been ripped out. The worst part was the first few days. All sorts of things were going through our heads. We were worried Isla was going to die. We cried so much but we had to try to stay strong. In many ways it was a blessing Isla was so young because she didn’t understand. We told her the doctors needed to look at fairies behind her eyes.”

Julie was told the tumour had grown so big it had detached Isla’s retina and she was now blind in her right eye.

Days later, doctors operated to remove her eye and the tumour. It was replaced by a implant with a plastic lens designed to look like her old eye.

Isla has adapted well to her “magic eye” and mum Julie says she is just like any other two-year-old.

She added: “She is bright and boisterous and relishes her new role as big sister to brother Charlie who is seven months old.”

Isla faces years of hospital

visits to check the tumour has not returned.

“I worry about the affect it will have on her socially, but I hope we can give her the resilience to cope.”