Specialist Mental Health Nurse Morgan from Cumbria became the £1 million patient in our 2023 ‘Thanks a Million’ campaign, receiving free laser eye surgery to help transform her life and career.

Working as part of a community mental health team means that Morgan regularly enters unfamiliar environments when carrying out home visits to patients, making it essential for her to be aware of her surroundings so that she can quickly identify entrance and exit points when needed.

“Sometimes there can be risks associated, so my sight of where I am and where my entrance and exit points are is really important,” she says.

With glasses and contact lenses impacting on Morgan’s confidence in these situations, she had always been keen to explore alternative solutions such as laser eye surgery. When she came across our ‘Thanks a Million’ campaign on Instagram, she didn’t hesitate to apply and was ecstatic to see a congratulatory email pop up in her inbox several weeks later.

Talking us through her experience of receiving life-changing vision correction surgery at our Newcastle clinic, Morgan highlights how surprised she was by the speed and ease of the procedure, stating: “I’d been told it was quick, but didn’t quite realise how quick it was. I would do it again tomorrow in a heartbeat, it was that painless”.

Not only was Morgan impressed with the procedure itself, she also couldn’t find fault with the team that supported her in the run-up to and on her surgery day. “They have always been really helpful, and supported me every time I’ve been in for my check-ups”, she comments.

Morgan refers to her new-found visual freedom as “amazing”, as it has made her more confident when providing vital care to her patients: “To be told in less than 24 hours that I had better than 20/20 vision was just mind blowing.”

Optical Express first launched the ‘Thanks a Million’ campaign in 2017, donating £1 million worth of free laser eye surgery to NHS and Emergency Service workers. The campaign since relaunched in 2023 with Optical Express donating another £1 million worth of laser eye surgery as a way of saying ‘thank you’ to those who work tirelessly every day to help safeguard our communities.