Just days after posing for the picture, parents Michele and Paul Barton, from Highways Avenue, Euxton, noticed that the pupils in their daughter's eyes were different colours and the left one was totally white.

Looking though their photo album they soon realised the abnormality had shown up on other pictures and they reported it to their GP, but were assured that it was probably okay.

Mum-of-seven Michele, 45, knew different but what she was told next was beyond her worst nightmares.

After seeing a specialist at Chorley hospital last May, the toddler was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, an extremely rare type of eye cancer that affects between 40 and 50 children a year.

Further examinations showed that she had a tumour behind her left eye and within days little Aaliyah was rushed to Birmingham Children's Hospital where she had a three-hour life-saving operation to remove the eye.

She then faced three months of chemotherapy treatment.

Despite being fitted with an artificial eye she is now the very picture of health.

Michele said: "We're just so incredibly lucky when you think about it.

"We were looking at some pictures and noticed that the eyes had turned red because of the flash - except one of Aaliyah's was totally white."

• For more on this story, see this week's Chorley Guardian