( Kristen Draime And Her Family. Photo by The Mirror)
A three year old girl named Miley has been diagnosed with a rare eye cancer after her mother noticed a white glow in her eye.
Kristen Draime, 29, had seen Miley’s eye drift now and then and thought it was a lazy eye.
She took her to a paediatrician, who referred her to an eye doctor, but the first available appointment was months away.
While waiting, Kristen saw a white glow in her daughter’s eye.
She searched online and found retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer.
One common sign is leukocoria, where the pupil looks white instead of red in flash photos, or cloudy in dim light.
She then checked Miley and saw her left eye had turned completely black.
Kristen and her husband Andrew, 38, rushed her to a local children’s emergency department in Ohio.
Kristen, a hospice social worker from Cleveland, said there were no other obvious signs.
Miley still walked across the balance beam at dance class and never complained, since she was too young to explain what she felt.
The on call eye doctor was called in on a Sunday, which told Kristen it was serious.
An ultrasound showed the tumour had almost completely taken over the left eye and it would need to be removed.
The family was sent to ocular oncologist Dr Arun Singh at Cleveland Clinic’s Cole Eye Institute, who examined Miley under anaesthesia and confirmed that removal was the best option.
He said retinoblastoma has the highest cure rate of any childhood cancer, and that removing the eye is the most common treatment because leaving it risks the cancer spreading to the brain or other parts of the body.
Miley had the hour long operation on November 21, 2025.
A biopsy afterwards showed she also needed chemotherapy because of the size and position of the tumour.
She began treatment with Dr Stacey Zahler just before Christmas 2025 and finished six sessions in May 2026.
A month later she rang the end of treatment Bravery Bell, surrounded by family and caregivers.
Kristen said watching her ring the bell was magical and that she will always be thankful to keep her daughter.
She said cancer took Miley’s eye but she gets to live a normal life.
Miley now has a permanent prosthetic eye, a small plastic disc that is cosmetic, can be removed for cleaning and helps the socket keep its shape.
Kristen said you would not know she had lost an eye and that she is doing amazingly well.
