Suffering from short-sightedness since she was in her teens, Zoe struggled with glasses for years but decided it was time to make a change when she became a mum. Finding that they often got in the way when spending quality-time with her daughter, she was keen to find an alternative vision correction solution that would be more suitable to her lifestyle as a new mother.

“I’ve got a two-year-old and she likes to pull at them, she thinks they’re a toy. So, it’s just a lot easier to get rid of them. The amount of times she’s stretched them and I’ve had to go and get the arm redone,” she explains.

With her partner’s brother also planning a wedding abroad, Zoe was desperate to rid herself of her glasses before the big day. “The thing that pushed me was that my partner’s brother is getting married in a couple of months. They are getting married abroad and with me being a bridesmaid, I don’t want to have glasses on in the photos,” she says. Deciding not to wait any longer, she booked in for surgery at our state-of-the-art clinic in Meadowhall, Sheffield.

While she had been excited in the run-up to her appointment, Zoe found that the nerves started to kick in when she arrived on the day of surgery: “When I got here it all got so real. I was nervous right up to it, I was nervous during it. But the actual procedure, I couldn’t fault them. They spoke to me the entire way through it and it kept me calm.” Not knowing what to expect, she was surprised to find that the procedure had been quick and entirely pain-free. “You can’t ever imagine what it’s going to be like, but it’s nowhere near as bad as what you think it’s going to be. You don’t feel a thing, and they tell you what’s going to happen beforehand,” she explains.

Throughout her journey with Optical Express, Zoe has been extremely impressed with both the team at our Meadowhall clinic and her surgeon, Dr. Kazmi. “He was amazing, I went to see him just before the actual surgery and he made me feel at ease, had a laugh with me, and made some jokes.” Returning home after the procedure, she was ecstatic to find that her vision had already improved massively within just 4 hours: “I can honestly say that 4 hours after my surgery, I could see amazing. He does a really good job.”

Delighted with her results, Zoe is looking forward to enjoying quality time with her daughter with complete visual freedom. “I just want to take my daughter to somewhere like an indoor play area, where she can spend time with the other kids and I can see the smile on her face,” she comments. When asked if she would recommend laser eye surgery to others struggling with poor vision, she didn’t hesitate: “If anybody had any doubts or confidence issues, or is just generally thinking about it, I would 100% recommend it without a doubt. I’m just so happy that I’ve had it done, that I can see and I don’t have to rely on my glasses anymore.”