A North Carolina woman gave birth to twins Thursday night after battling a rare form of eye cancer and losing her eye to the disease.

Jessica Boesmiller from Charlotte, North Carolina, welcomed twins — a girl named Piper and a boy named Mason. The woman and her husband came forward to talk about the disease earlier this month so awareness could be raised about it.

“Normally I probably would have ignored it,” the 37-year-old Boesmiller said. She told NBC affiliate WCNC at the time that she began to have blurry vision and attributed it to the pregnancy. It was only after she visited the doctor with her husband Mark that she was told about her illness. The doctor revealed that Boesmiller was suffering from a rare form of eye cancer called ocular melanoma.

“Hearing the word cancer was absolutely devastating,” she said adding: “Did an ultrasound and told us that it was ocular melanoma. We completely had thought that we were going to get a prescription for glasses or something and be on our merry way."

According to reports, the same form of cancer had been diagnosed in several people in the nearby town of Huntersville.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) described ocular melanoma as a type of cancer that led to the development of pigment — a substance that gave color to skin hair and eyes—in the eye cells. Although it was the most common primary intraocular malignant tumor among adults, its occurrence was said to be very rare.

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) pegged the U.S. incidence of ocular melanoma at 60 per million as compared to the 153.5 for cutaneous melanoma, the most common type of melanoma, affecting the skin.

Ocular melanomas first developed in the middle of the three layers of the eye, the uvea, but also rarely occurred on the conjunctiva, the clear tissue covering the white part of the eye and the inside of eyelids.

It was not clear what caused ocular melanoma, but, doctors said that a development of errors in the DNA of a healthy eye caused the cells to mutate and multiply out of control. The accumulation of the mutated cells in the eye led to the formation of a melanoma, the Mayo Clinic stated.

Risk factors for the disease include light eye color, having a white skin color, and exposure to ultraviolet light among others.

The cancer may not cause any symptoms in its early stages, according to the AAO. However, when the symptoms did occur, they include:

  • blurred or distorted vision or a blind spot in your side vision
  • a dark spot on the iris or conjunctiva
  • the sensation of flashing lights
  • a change in the shape of the pupil

Most uveal melanomas could be treated with plaque radiation therapy or enucleation (removal of the eye that leaves the eye muscles and remaining orbital contents intact). Other available options include particle beam radiotherapy, transpupillary thermotherapy, laser photocoagulation, gamma knife stereotactic radiosurgery and local surgical resection, the NCBI stated.

In Boesmiller’s case, the doctors had to use enucleation to remove her eyes following the diagnosis of cancer.

A GoFundMe page set up on behalf of the couple said: With this being such aggressive cancer, the doctors at Duke will also begin to check to see if it has metastasized (spread). If it has, Jessica and Mark will travel to Philadelphia to see oncology specialists who have vast experience and access to the best clinical trials. Hopefully, Jessica’s scans will be clear and Mark and Jessica will be able to focus on her recovery, a future prosthetic eye, and most importantly, their four beautiful children!

The twins who were born recently were not expected to be in any danger from cancer and would be closely monitored.

The page further said: "Jessica will head back to Duke for MRI and CT scans and then they can start getting some more answers. The twins' placentas will be sent for pathology results today. BIG prayers that those are clear!!"

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