TO look at the twinkle in three-year-old Teddie Stroud’s eye, you would have no idea the brave tot had been through months of gruelling medical treatment, culminating in the removal of one of his eyes.

Teddie and his family have been back and forth to hospital since he was over a year old as baffled doctors tried to discover what was causing the disfigurement to the iris in his right eye.

The youngster was finally diagnosed with medulloepithelioma, an extremely rare form of eye cancer, in December 2009.

He had to have his eye removed, but the state-of-the-art prosthetic replacement is barely noticeable and Teddie is well on the road to a full recovery and back playing the computer games he loves.

The youngster’s friends and family have begun a fundraising drive to raise money for the specialist children’s cancer ward at the Royal London Hospital where Teddie received much of his treatment.

Mum Kerri, 32, of Woodham Road, Benfleet, first noticed a problem in Teddie’s right eye when he was about 16 months old.

It began to appear bloodshot and shiny.

She took him to Southend Hospital, where doctors blamed it on conjunctivitis, but then put it down to an infection of the iris.

However, when Kerri noticed a lesion in October 2008 she rushed him straight to hospital in Orsett.

She said: “We went in at 8am and by 5pm he was in theatre. It was horrible. I saw the lesion and I just thought it must be cancer.”

A biopsy revealed cancerous cells, but Teddie’s condition continued to be misdiagnosed.

Doctors mistook the growth in his eye for glaucoma, which is caused by high pressure, and they thought the lens was severely damaged.

Tests for retino blastoma, a more common form of eye cancer, came back negative, leaving doctors baffled.

It was only when he saw a specialist at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel that Teddie was diagnosed with medulloepithelioma.

By this time Kerri and husband Phil, 39, could see the tumour attacking their son’s eye and it was decided to operate to remove it.

Kerri said: “They called it a leech because it fed from the two main blood vessels in the eye.

“You could see the tumours working in his eye. They looked like little worms. It grew so much they bought his operation forward.”

Despite the long road to a proper diagnosis, Kerri bears no ill will to the doctors at the Royal London.

She said: “About one child a year has the condition that Teddie has and most of them are benign.

“Teddie’s was aggressive and malignant.

“He was probably born with it, but because it’s so rare it wasn’t noticed and he was misdiagnosed, through no fault of the doctors.

“Some of them may have never have seen the condition. It is so rare.”

Teddie is still receiving chemo-therapy and may undergo some radiotherapy as well to make sure the cancer really is gone, although doctors are confident it has not spread to his other eye.

He is making a good recovery and is set to follow in the footsteps of mum, dad and brothers, Sam, nine, and Ben, 11, when he starts at Jotmans Hall Primary School, in High Road, Benfleet, in September.

Teddie’s plastic eyeball will barely be noticed by his new classmates as it’s connected to tendons and tear ducts.

This allows it to move around like a eye normal and he can still cry.

A hazel coloured contact lens has also been placed over the top, so it matches his left eye.

Kerri added: “It is amazing.

“We’re so proud of Teddie.

“Not many adults could deal with what he’s been through.”