Women Form Unique Friendship After They Both Lose an Eye to Cancer: 'We Have 2 Cats, 2 Partners Called Mark and 2 Eyes’

• Jo Denman and Tessa Parry-Wingfield struck up a close friendship after they were both diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that led to both having their eyes removed
• “The parallels were remarkable,” Parry-Wingfield told the British newspaper The Times that their lives are so similar, including living in the same area, they are both 46-year-old mothers and have partners called Mark
• “There’s nothing stopping you from grieving for your right eye. This teaches you a big lesson about what’s important,” she added to the outlet.

Two women in England have formed a sisterly bond after both had their eyes removed after being diagnosed with the same rare cancer.

Jo Denman and Tessa Parry-Wingfield, both 46-year-olds from south-west London, had their eyes removed – Denman’s right and Parry-Wingfield’s left – about a year apart after they were both diagnosed with eye melanoma; a very rare cancer that affects only five out of every million adults, according to a British newspaper The Times.

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, “Ocular melanoma (melanoma in or around the eye) is a type of cancer that develops in cells that produce pigment. Pigment gives color to your skin, hair, and eyes.”

“Just as melanoma can develop on your skin, you can develop it inside the eye or on the conjunctiva. Although it is the most common eye cancer in adults, ocular melanoma is very rare,” the AAO added.

Photo of two people holding hands.

Cecilie_Arcurs/Getty

While talking to The TimesParry-Wingfield and Denman recalled being contacted by a mutual friend shortly before the latter underwent surgery. Parry-Wingfield underwent surgery exactly a year before their meeting in March.

Friends have a lot in common; both are parents — Denman is mum to a 10-year-old son, while Parry-Wingfield has daughters aged 11 and 13 — both have a partner named Mark, both have cats and both work in marketing and communications, as well as having the same medical team for their operations.

“We have two cats, two partners, called Mark, and two eyes,” Parry-Wingfield told the newspaper, adding that together they are “either an unstoppable force or a walking disaster.”

When the couple – who also live around the corner from each other – met, Denman was preparing for surgery after seeing an optician a month earlier, in February. She noticed a red vein in her right eye and that she felt a little “spacey”.

She joked with her husband at the time that she was “going to find out if I went blind.” On the morning of the appointment, Denman also “noticed an ominous spot on her iris that changed color from blue to yellow,” according to the outlet.

“The optician said she could see a ‘shadow,'” Denman said, adding that her optician scheduled her appointment at the hospital the next morning. After several weeks of tests, she was told that the tumor had filled half of her eyeball and that it would be best to have her eye removed.

Denman told the publication: “Mark and I went ‘huh?’, expecting the surgeon to say, ‘and put it back.’ It’s not.”

Photo of the doctor.

Ivan-balvan/Getty

Parry-Wingfield was diagnosed about a year before Denman, who said it was a “scary and rapidly changing situation”.

“The whole point was to say to Jo, ‘You can do it,'” Parry-Wingfield said of meeting Denman. “She was in that stage of shock, it’s just terrifying, and I knew how she felt.”

“The parallels were amazing,” Parry-Wingfield said of their lives being so similar, adding: “It normalizes something that’s very abnormal. I’m not the only one with one eye anymore.”

“It seems too random,” Denman admitted. “It seems to me that there is a part of fate that I met Tess then.”

Although they both feel happy, especially because of their friendship, Parry-Wingfield told the outlet: “Even looking in the mirror was difficult… I would wonder: is it vanity or is it just terribly scary to see yourself for the first time without an eye? And then you have to go out there and face the whole world.”

“Nothing will recreate your eye. People say, ‘You must be so pleased,'” she added to the publication, referring to their acrylic prosthetic eyes. “There is a calmer acceptance here. It’s not real and it doesn’t look the same. We lost half our sight.”

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“There’s nothing stopping you from grieving your right eye. It teaches you a big lesson about what’s important… It’s different, you feel different, people look at you differently, and it takes a very long time,” Parry added. -Wingfield exit.

“I’m lucky to have the other eye,” Denman said. “And the cancer was removed without any other treatment.”

“We don’t jump with great joy through the fields because a cancer diagnosis is terrifying. But I like our story,” Parry-Wingfield continued, according to the publication. “It’s a story about facing adversity together.”

Denman did not immediately respond when PEOPLE contacted him.

Parry-Wingfield first shared her cancer journey with The Times back in July and called it a “painful – but also surprisingly enlightening – ordeal” in a post on her LinkedIn page.

She added of sharing her story: “I’m very nervous about this. But I hope I can help others, like me, who are going through a cancer diagnosis in middle age – or any age.”

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Source: HIS Education