Jill Gourlay, a fashion and lifestyle blogger from Dumbarton, spent years of primary school missing classes because of painful migraines that impaired her sight, but it wasn’t until her first year of high school that she realised she needed an eye test. She felt some relief after getting her first pair of glasses, but over the next couple of years, her prescription got stronger and stronger.

Jill says that she debated getting laser eye surgery for years, but had “been putting it off because I thought my eyes were fine and I’d already spent so much money on glasses.” But her prescription kept getting worse and her frustration with constantly using contacts or breaking her glasses increased. Jill knew she needed to think about other options. It didn’t help that driving with her glasses on felt like it was getting harder because “everything [wasn’t] crystal clear and it could be quite dangerous.”

Once she made the decision to see if she was a candidate for laser eye surgery and had her free consultation at Optical Express, Jill knew she’d made the right choice. Especially when she realized how much easier her life would be when she didn’t have to wear her glasses anymore. Her surgery day came quickly, and Jill says that she was a bit nervous but “I don’t think I realized how short [the procedure] would be. I was literally out in five minutes. After a few hours, I was totally fine… and my eyesight was nearly perfect already.”

So perfect, in fact, that she went on holiday a few weeks later. “It was such a relief to not have to take something else with me. Every time I go on holiday I somehow end up breaking [my glasses] and I can’t get them fixed and that panics me… I can just wear whatever I want, and the freedom in that itself is going to be amazing.”

Jill says that she would “100% recommend laser eye surgery to anyone considering it. It’s made everything easier in my day-to-day life, especially with my job… I’m so thrilled.”