A 24-year-old who thought his eye might “fall out of (his) head” said he visited hospitals nine times before being told he had a rare cancerous tumour on his optic nerve.

Farid Oladapo, a sports teaching assistant who lives in Sanderstead, south Croydon, was diagnosed with embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma – a type of soft tissue cancer – in June 2022 after noticing bruising and swelling on his right eye.