Daniel and Patricia Lewi were worried about their 15-month-old daughter Amelie. She had begun crawling and babbling like any other child her age but abruptly stopped. Other than that, she had a healthy appetite and was “beautiful and absolutely perfect” to her parents. “We thought it very strange for a child not to do something once they had started, so we took her to the doctor,” says her father Daniel, now 39.
In 2011, Amelie was referred to the Lewis’ local hospital in South London on the suspicion that she had a brain tumour. Multiple tests were carried out, including one to examine the back of her eye for the presence of a cherry-red spot.