A REVOLUTIONARY piece of equipment has magnified an eight-year-old boy’s world who otherwise survives with limited peripheral vision in just one eye.

Felix Baulch begged his parents Louise and Phil, of Feering, for a Prodigi - a sophisticated touch screen computer with a camera allowing him to zoom in to just about anything.

Essex County Council had funded the £2,300 machine at school but the family had no means of buying one for Felix at home.

Felix has a retinoblastoma, a rare cancer which meant he lost his right eye aged four.

Doctors also considered removing his left eye 15 months ago when he relapsed but fortunately since undergoing chemotherapy, he has been stable.

Now, the family has more to be grateful for after Essex-based charity Wipe Away Those Tears decided to fund another Prodigi.

Louise said: “I was walking around the house just saying ‘oh my word’ - we were over the moon.

“Felix was excited to take it out the box. He loves music and was focussing the camera on the TV from the sofa so Bruno Mars was magnified.

“He was also putting his hands and my wedding ring underneath it so he could zoom in on the details.

“The charity responded to our email saying they’d fund the equipment within an hour. We just couldn’t believe it.”

Retinoblastoma affects almost one child aged under five each week in the UK.

In 98 per cent of cases they will survive but the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust say most will need to have an eye removed to save their life. In rare circumstances it can be fatal.

To see a word in 48 point font, Felix has to hold the Prodigi an inch away from his face so using the kit at school since last October has transformed his life.

Gazette:

Independent - Felix Baulch is able to read by himself now

She said: “It’s made a tremendous difference to his learning. It means if the teacher hands out a worksheet, he can work on it like his peers.

“At home, he loves to read encyclopaedia books on science and space but usually my husband and I would have to read them to him because of the font size.

“Just just like any eight-year-old he’s now been given his independence.

“We’d also been to the zoo and I pointed to some giraffes and asked Felix if he could see them, but he couldn’t. He used the camera to zoom in so they appeared just inches away from his face.”

Felix lives at home with his brothers Leo, 11, and Barney, three.

He continues to progress at school with the support of a one-to-one teacher but where his health is concerned, the family live in hope his cancer does not return.

She said: “It’s difficult because him not being able to see has become normal for us but as he gets older, when we see he can’t do the things his friends can, it will be upsetting.

“We take each day as it comes. At the moment Felix is also learning braille, but he’s not working in braille because we still don’t know what the future holds with his left eye.

"Fingers crossed, we hope his cancer won’t come back but the nature of cancer means you just never know.”