ROCKFORD, Ill. — An Illinois mother’s cell phone picture of her son turned out to be life-saving. 
 
 Avery Fitzgerald seems to be a pretty typical 2-year-old, following after his older brother and jumping on the couch when his mother isn’t watching. 
 
 However, his mom, Julie Fitzgerald, noticed something was different about her youngest son. 
 
 “Probably a couple (of) months (ago) I would notice when I was looking at Avery in a light, I would see something in the back of his eye,” Julie Fitzgerald said. 
 
 She started to wonder what it could be and went online to read an article about a woman who saw a white eye in photos of relatives instead of the normal red eye. The article said it could be cancer. 
 
 Julie Fitzgerald told the story to her husband Patrick who told her it was nothing. However, she couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong. 
 
 “I took a picture and I did not want to take the picture because I had this dreaded feeling in the pit of my stomach,” Julie Fitzgerald said. “I took the picture and boom, his whole pupil was just white and that’s when I knew.” 
 
 That’s when she took Avery to a specialist who took one look and said there were multiple tumors in his eye. 
 
 That was three weeks ago. Julie took Avery to a specialist who gave them the news. 
 
 It was a rare form of cancer called retinoblastoma. 
 
 Seventy-five percent of Avery’s eye was covered in tumors and it had to be removed. The doctors told them that if they waited much longer it could have spread to his brain and blood. 
 
 The Fitzgerald family found out Avery had likely been blind in his left eye his whole life, but tumors started growing just six weeks earlier. 
 
 His dad said he has very simple advice for other father’s out there: 
 
 “Trust your gut. Trust a momma’s gut… and don’t wait, don’t wait to see if it improves.” 
 
 Avery will eventually get a prosthetic eye. 
 
 He is now being tested to see if he has a genetic marker that could mean he is at risk for more cancer. 
 
 Right now his family believes all the cancer has been removed. 

 Retinoblastoma is a rare type of eye cancer that usually develops in early childhood, typically before the age of 5. This form of cancer develops in the retina, which is the specialized light-sensitive tissue at the back of the that detects light and color. 
 
 In children with retinoblastoma, the disease often affects only one eye. However, one out of three children with retinoblastoma develops cancer in both eyes. The most common first sign of retinoblastoma is a visible whiteness in the pupil called "cat's eye reflex" or . This unusual whiteness is particularly noticeable in dim light or in photographs taken with a flash. Other signs and symptoms of retinoblastoma include crossed eyes or eyes that do not point in the same direction ( ), which can cause squinting; a change in the color of the colored part of the eye (iris); redness, soreness, or swelling of the eyelids; and blindness or poor vision in the affected eye or eyes. 
 
 Retinoblastoma is often curable when it is diagnosed early. However, if it is not treated promptly, this cancer can spread beyond the eye to other parts of the body. This advanced form of retinoblastoma can be life-threatening. 
 
 When retinoblastoma is associated with a genetic change (mutation) that occurs in all of the body's cells, it is known as hereditary (or germinal) retinoblastoma. People with this form of retinoblastoma typically develop cancer in both eyes and also have an increased risk of developing several other cancers outside the eye. Specifically, they are more likely to develop a cancer of the pineal gland in the brain (pineoblastoma), a type of bone cancer known as osteosarcoma, cancers of soft tissues (such as muscle) called soft tissue sarcomas, and an aggressive form of skin cancer called . 

 Julie Fitzgerald had been worried about strange spots on her 2-year-old's eye, but she initially brushed them off. 
 
 But then she saw viral story on Facebook about how a white glow that appeared someone's eye in photos could signal cancer. So she decided to snap a photo of Avery. 
 
 And there it was, the white glow. 
 
 "I just had this gut feeling in my stomach that something was wrong with his eye," Fitzgerald told ABC News. 
 
 ABC News 
 
 Doctors diagnosed Avery with retinoblastoma and said cancerous tumors covered 75 percent of his eye, she said. They had to removed it entirely, but they said they caught the cancer just in time, Fitzgerald said. 
 
 "If we did not get this eye out, the cancer would spread to his blood and to his brain," Fitzgerald said. "Our lives went from normal to cancer to a cancer survivor in three weeks. It turned out to be our worst nightmare but it saved our son's life." 
 
 Last month, Joanna Murphy caught the rare cancer after noticing a white glow in her daughter's eye. And Tara Taylor's Facebook friend noticed a glow in her daughter's eye, prompting the diagnosis of another rare eye disease. 
 
 "It is a medical emergency," said Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News chief health and medical editor. "You need to see your doctor right away. It may be retinoblastoma. But if you miss that sign, it is usually fatal."
– A mom's photo of her 2-year-old boy helped her spot a rare cancer symptom and possibly prevent the disease from spreading to his blood and brain, WREX 13 and Fox 8 report. Illinois resident Julie Fitzgerald noticed earlier this year that her son Avery's left eye looked a little odd. She read online about a person whose eyes appeared white instead of red in photos, a possible cancer indicator. Her husband Patrick blew it off, but Julie, still worried, took a smartphone shot of Avery: "I did not want to take the picture because I had this dreaded feeling in the pit of my stomach," she says. "I took the picture, and boom: His whole pupil was just white—and that’s when I knew." A specialist looked at Avery and said his eye was covered 75% in tumors; in fact, he'd likely been blind there his whole life, although the tumors started growing just 6 weeks earlier. The doctor diagnosed him with retinoblastoma, an unusual eye cancer that often starts in early childhood; 250 to 350 US children get it every year, according to the National Institutes of Health. Doctors removed Avery's unhealthy eye and will replace it with a prosthetic one, and plan to keep testing the boy for signs of other cancers. "If we did not get this eye out, the cancer would spread to his blood and to his brain," Julie tells ABC News. "Our lives went from normal to cancer to a cancer survivor in three weeks. It turned out to be our worst nightmare but it saved our son's life." (Read about a man who couldn't breathe getting a rare transplant.)