Brain tumour discovered after four-year-old Cardiff boy visits ophthalmologist

He said he took his son to the eye doctor after he and his partner Katie Hayes, 30, noticed Rome’s eye started to blink involuntarily in April.

“I was looking at his eye while he was watching TV and I noticed he was blinking up and down,” Mr Hill said.

“I mentioned it to Katie and we thought it was something unintentional. But we decided to check it out.”

The couple took Rome to the ophthalmologist, where they were told he had “very low vision.”

It was only when a consultant spoke to the family that they discovered Rome was blind in his right eye.

“We couldn’t believe it. Rome never showed any indication that he had any vision problems,” Mr Hill said.

“He has no problems with balance or coordination. I play rugby and when I’m on the field waving to him, he can see me and he waves back.”

Rome was sent for an MRI, and a few weeks later the family was called in for a doctor’s appointment.

“We were taken to a room with comfortable chairs and then we were asked ‘what are they going to tell us?’ We were really anxious,” his father said.

The consultant told the couple that Rome had a brain tumor located in a pocket of fluid near a gland at the base of the brain.

The six-hour surgery carried out in Rome removed part of the tumour due to its position.

“On the day of the operation I walked all over the house. It was agonising. When he came out of the operating theatre and we were told the operation was a success it was such a relief,” Mr Hill said.

“The main thing we wanted was to get our son home. He’s been so brave through everything he’s been through,” she added.

The family was told the tumor was called a low-grade glioma and was not cancerous. Rome will now undergo chemotherapy to shrink the remaining portion of the tumor.

He or she will also do tests to determine whether shrinking the tumor will cause vision in the right eye to improve over time.

Mr Hill said: “We were over the moon to find out it was benign. It all happened so quickly and it’s still very raw.

“But we wanted to raise awareness about our story and the great work the Noah’s Ark team does.”

Mr Hill has now set up a fundraising page and challenged himself to run 10km to raise money for Noah’s Ark.

“It’s a 10k by 10k race. We want to raise as much money as possible for the team as a thank you for looking after our boy,”

“We also want to show our gratitude to the doctors, nurses and all the health care professionals in the ward,” he said.