Spending most of her spare time either out running or horse-riding, Shelley grew increasingly frustrated with the hassle that came with wearing glasses. Worried that they might fall off and break, and struggling to see when they steamed up, she found that she often ended up wearing her contact lenses for long periods of time instead.

Aware of the damage that extended contact lens wear could inflict on her eyes, she decided to start looking into laser eye surgery when her optometrist offered this as an alternative vision correction solution.

Also shocked to find out that her contact lens wear was having a detrimental impact on the environment, she decided that it was time to make a change. “I used to put my contact lenses down the plug hole and thought they just broke up in the water system, but I was quite shocked to read that they don’t, and that there are other contact lenses that are still sitting around in the ocean or in landfill. I was quite shocked at that,” she explains.

Deciding to opt for surgery, Shelley was impressed with the care she received throughout her journey with Optical Express – from the team at Head Office who supported her prior to treatment to the staff who looked after her at our Meadowhall clinic. “Everybody’s really nice, really helpful and answered all my questions. I was called from Head Office to run through everything. Everybody was really helpful, checking at every stage if I was still happy to go ahead and if I’ve got any worries or concerns or anything,” she comments. 

Eager to rid herself of her glasses, she felt more excitement than apprehension when she arrived on the day of surgery. “I woke up ready to come to the surgery and I was really excited because I thought well, this is the last time I’ll ever actually have to put my glasses on,” she says. Coming out of treatment, she was surprised to find that her vision already appeared clearer and sharper: “I was sent home with my drops and I could see pretty much straight away!”

Shelley is over the moon with her results and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Optical Express to friends and family. “It’s like I had my contact lenses in when waking up this morning, it’s amazing. I would definitely recommend Optical Express to friends and family and anybody else. I’ve already recommended it to my brother.”