Wearing glasses since middle school due to short-sightedness, Claire found that they had become more and more of a nuisance in her day-to-day life. Working for the ambulance service as an Emergency Medical Technician, she started wearing full PPE during the global COVID-19 pandemic, which often caused her glasses to steam up.

With contact lenses not being a suitable alternative, as wearing these during her 12-hour long shifts generally led to dry and irritated eyes, she knew it was time to start looking at other vision correction solutions.

 “I work for the ambulance service, and wearing glasses and contact lenses was just not cutting it. My glasses would always steam up with the masks, and I have to wear hoods and everything. It just gets in the way,” Claire explains. Also growing increasingly frustrated with the way poor vision was disrupting her active lifestyle, as she was unable to wear glasses while swimming or out running, she finally made the decision to start looking into laser eye surgery and came in for a free consultation. “Swimming was always a big issue, and I don’t really like running with glasses, it feels uncomfortable to me. So, when I was out running, it would be really blurry,” she says.

As her friend had previously received laser eye surgery at Optical Express and said it was the best thing she had ever done, Claire decided not to wait any longer and booked in for treatment. Receiving surgery at our Cambridge clinic, she was delighted with the support and service she received throughout the process and was surprised by the speed and ease of the procedure: “Everyone was really lovely and friendly. They took me into the actual surgery room and the staff there were lovely, really put me at ease. Then the surgeon came in and it was all over in about six or seven minutes. It was amazing!”

Coming in for her first check-up the next day, Claire was ecstatic to find that she had already achieved 20/20 vision. She is now most looking forward to getting back to work with her new-found visual freedom: “I’m looking forward to being able to treat my patients and not have to worry about where my glasses are or having everything steam up, and I can just concentrate on my patients.” A holiday is also on the cards, as she is eager to book another snorkelling trip with her improved vision. “Just being able to see the fish clearer. I’ve been diving and snorkelling before and it’s always felt a bit blurry, and I feel like I missed out,” she explains.

Claire wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the treatment to friends and family, commenting: “It’s one of the best things I’ve done, I can see so much clearer and it’s just one of the best things you can do, just to ditch your glasses and not have to worry about where they are. That’s one thing that my partner is looking forward to, not having to search for my glasses anymore. I wish I had done this years ago.”