A mum who was diagnosed with a deadly cancer has shared how her appearance has changed drastically after having her eye removed – but can now perform party tricks with her empty socket.

Emma Cousins, 34, from Sheffield, has been living with one eye after being diagnosed with mesenchymal chondrosarcoma – a type of cancer – in April 2018.

She had noticed her left eye appearing to grow and bulge, but when she started to feel unwell shortly after her daughter’s second birthday, she went to A&E to get checked out.

“My eye felt stretched and I felt sick,” Emma, who is mum to an 11-year-old son and five-year-old daughter, told Jam Press.

“The doctor thought it was a small bleed so I saw an out of hours optician who asked if I had any selfies on my phone.

“I had six years’ worth of pictures so I showed the optician, who asked to see pictures of me from further back.

“It was at that point I thought ‘oh no something is wrong’. I managed to find pictures of me at 15.

“The optician said he didn’t know for sure but that it looked like something had been growing behind my eye since I was 17.”

Looking at the images side-by-side, Emma could see a subtle difference as her eye appeared to grow and bulge over time.

She was booked in for an MRI scan which found a large tumour growing behind her eye, and in April 2018 a biopsy was taken to see if it could be salvaged.

Sadly, nothing could be done and she was diagnosed with a form of sarcoma cancer – and told she would lose her eye.

Emma said: “I thought ‘no, it can’t be, I’m too young’ and the doctor was acting very nervous.

“The doctor said ‘the eye will have to come out’ and told me I’m the only person in England with it, and that chemotherapy wouldn’t work.

“He told me not to Google it but obviously that was the first thing I did when I was alone.

“I wish I had listened as all I could find were pages saying it spreads to the lungs and you die.

“After reading that it made me panic and the reality kicked in – I was going to lose my eye and I had cancer.”

Over the following weeks, surgeons planned the tricky surgery, warning Emma that, while they would remove as much of the tumour as possible, she would be left disfigured.

Emma said: “I had to tell my children because, with my eye going, I couldn’t hide it from them.

“I told them I needed to have my eye removed then I would be better.

In June 2018, she had her eyeball removed in a terrifying procedure.

“I was nervous but knowing I had cancer and how bad it could be made me feel better about it,” Emma said.

“Losing an eye for a chance of saving my life was a risk I was willing to take.

“I think one of the worst things was 10 minutes before the eye removal, one of the nurses drew an arrow on my forehead to highlight which eye it was – and for the rest of my time left with two eyes I was panicking they would take the wrong eye out by mistake.

“My main concern was what would happen with the kids – my daughter was so young at the time, so she wouldn’t remember anything about me.”

Thankfully, Emma made it through the tough surgery and started a six-week course of radiation therapy, which caused burns to her skin.

Sadly, she had a reaction to the treatment and ended up in ICU connected to a ventilator as she fought off the debilitating symptoms linked to fulminant multiple sclerosis, which left her “completely paralysed”.

She said: “I couldn’t even talk – it was like being completely locked in my own body, unable to communicate anything.

“Doctors told my family I would die, but to their surprise I regained the ability to talk, my arms started to work, and I have slowly recovered to the point I can now walk myself – although not as well as I used to.”

Her medics were left equally baffled by the adverse reaction and much is still unclear about why Emma suffered so much post-surgery.

As soon as she saw herself with one eye, Emma realised she looked “different to anybody else”.

She said: “The first thing I can remember thinking was ‘wow it doesn’t look as bad as I thought’.

“It was still a few months before it all settled and the bruising had gone down, but it looked so much nicer than I had presumed it would look.

“I actually liked it because everything has been done now with hair and makeup, whereas everyone notices how different I look – and I try to live up to that with my eye patches.

“After all, they are going to stare at me anyway, so why not give them something to stare at?”

Later that month in June 2018, Emma was referred to have a prosthetic eye made, but found it to look “fake” and be too much “faff”, so opted instead to wear glasses and eye patches.

Over time, a small hole developed in her empty socket – which doctors believe was caused by the radiation – which has been widened.

Emma said: “Because the radiation has killed veins in my socket they supply the skin with blood and because blood cannot get to the area the skin dies and that’s what the hole is.

“I’ve waited over a year for the operation but now the hole is getting bigger simple things like having a shower or being in heavy rain can drown me.

“As the hole is directly connected to my lungs – meaning anything going in my eye can enter my lungs.

“I have to stay away from a swimming pool and baths as I could drown.”

Luckily, her children have been incredibly supportive.

Emma said: “They have been wonderful. When the hole first appeared to now, they have had to see it grow in size but have been great at adapting – even though it has meant no swimming, which they love.

“I don’t think they realise just how good they have been throughout all of this.

“They have had to grow up so fast and seen daily not only how big the hole is getting, but my daily struggle to recover.”

Despite her suffering, she has received global attention on TikTok, after taking to the social media platform to share videos of her empty socket.

One video received 15 million views, with thousands of fans cheering her on.

One person said: "I would just like to say this is not scary but inspiring, unique and beautiful. Because this is who you are."

"This is so powerful," another fan added.

Someone else commented: "No offence but it kinda looks like your eye is breathing but your beautiful." [sic]

Emma has also showed off her unique party tricks – which include blowing out candles with the hole in her socket.

Now, the mum is focusing on continuing her recovery – which should hopefully involve a procedure taking a chunk of skin from her leg to cover the hole in her socket.