Diagnosed when she was almost 4 months old, 7 year old Emma is a survivor of bilateral retinoblastoma. Her parents thought Emma had a lazy eye. Their pediatrician referred them to a pediatric ophthalmologist. He dilated her eyes and studied her for what seemed an interminable amount of time. The shocking diagnosis was 6 tumors in each eye. He said they are always malignant. As devastating as the news was, the Ashford family was thankful to have caught the disease early.

Over 30 surgeries and 4 rounds of chemotherapy later, Emma's right eye was doing great. Her left eye was questionable. When Emma turned 3, she stopped having exams under anesthesia, and was old enough to be examined in an office. Two months shy of her 5th birthday, under a routine examination, Dr. Murphree said he noticed changes and was worried the cancer was not gone. Within a month, Emma's retina detached and it was impossible to see if new tumors were growing. Emma then had her left eye enucleated. Later pathology confirmed the growth of more cancerous tumors in her eye.

Since Emma was nearly 5, she was old enough to voice her concerns and understand exactly what was going on. She had already noticed she couldn't see out of that eye. Nancy Mansfield, at the Institute for Families, prepared the entire family for the procedure. Emma's older sister, Grace took it almost as hard as her parents, but Emma seemed to understand.

After the initial 3 days, the pain wore off and Emma started to function as normal. She seemed happy and felt beautiful with her "bloody eye". She was even the flower girl in a wedding. However, after she healed and her prosthetic eye was implemented, she hugged the ocularist and said, "Mommy, I look like me again!"

Since then, Emma has been doing beautifully. Emma is now in 2nd grade. She studies ballet and piano, sings incessantly and is completely happy. She was able to join her Daddy, Matthew and the cast of DAYS OF OUR LIVES, playing herself on a CD entitled EMMA AND THE GOBBLTYGOOS, a funny and moving children's story that was created to donate funds to Retinoblastoma International. This CD is available online from LML Music or by phone at 1-888-856-9202

Recently, Emma told the children in her school class about her fake eye, and much to her dismay, no one believed her. Emma's family feels very blessed.