BIRTHMARK HORROR: Mom thought her baby girl had cancer after she was born with a lump on her neck

Little Mila was born with a birthmark on her neck that was so large it looked like a second head.

But Mila’s birthmark was not cancer at all.

Mila, now one, was born with a congenital hemangioma – or a collection of small blood vessels under the skin.

Page, 21, likened the tennis ball-sized lump to a “bag of blood” and admits she was terrified the birthmark would rupture.

The worried mum-of-two became obsessed with measuring the birthmark, which started to shrink after three months.

Now the lump has completely disappeared from Mila’s neck.

Paige, from Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire: “I thought she had cancer. You see a lump and you just assume.

“I was in bits and in tears.

“For the first few weeks I thought she was going to die. It was really scary.

“It was the size of a tennis ball. It looked really big because she was so small.

“It was like another head. One of my friends joked that it could have been a twin but obviously it wasn’t.

“However, I knew that as long as she was breathing and she was okay that is what was important.”

There are three types of congenital hemangioma; rapidly involuting congenital hemangiomas (RICH), noninvoluting congenital hemangiomas (NICH) and partially involuting congenital haemangiomas (PICH).

A RICH grows while the baby is in the womb and they starts to shrink once they are born while a NICH may continue to grow after the baby is born in proportion with their growth rate.

PICH types can behave like a RICH and shrink after birth then stop at some point or one that was thought the be a NICH may shrink quicker, but it is not known why.

Mila was born with a RICH.

Paige said: “I was crying for weeks. It was a waiting game for a while because we didn’t know if it would ever go down.

“I was scared it was NICH. I was very anxious but I did my research, I discovered that if it was RICH it would start to shrink at three to five months.

“I just wanted her to get to that age.

“There was a lot of worry it would affect her movement but it really didn’t.

“I thought she would need surgery, it was like a bag of blood. It can be dangerous.

“She has a strong neck and could give you a solid headbutt.

“I don’t think it caused her any pain. She used it as a pillow in the night and would lie on it.

“My other child, Harvey [3], didn’t have a birth mark but I would be worried if I got pregnant again.”