Forensic Nurse Practitioner Paula was one of the lucky applicants to receive free laser eye surgery as part of Optical Express’ ‘Thanks a Million’ campaign. The campaign was relaunched for the second time in 2023 and is dedicated to celebrating the hard work of NHS and Emergency Service workers by providing them with another £1 million worth of free laser eye surgery.

We caught up with Paula just 24-hours after her laser eye surgery, and she was thrilled with the transformation in her vision just one day after her procedure, commenting, “I just had my surgery yesterday, so I can’t actually believe how quick my eyes have recovered and how well I can see.”

On the day of the procedure Paula came to our state of the art clinic in Glasgow city centre where she was well looked after by the clinic team. She was treated by Scotland’s most experienced ophthalmologist, Dr David Teenan, who explained the entire surgery process and answered any questions that she had ahead of the procedure. Thanks to the clinic team, any nerves that Paula felt on the day quickly subsided and she felt at ease throughout the entire process.

Amazed by the advanced technology used at Optical Express, Paula felt confident in her visual outcome thanks to the level of diagnostic checks that were performed on her vision ahead of surgery. Discussing the innovative technology she said, “I was very impressed with how many different eye machines they had to check and all the different variations they had. I didn’t expect them to have such an in-depth look at my eyes and they were very thorough to make sure that my operation went as smoothly as possible.”

Commenting on how quick the surgery experience itself was Paula explained, “My husband dropped me off and had only just for home and got in the door and was like, “Oh I’ve to come back to pick you up? I didn’t realise it would be that quick.”

Just 24-hours after her laser eye surgery procedure Paula was able to return to work where her colleagues were eager to hear all about her visual transformation. “With most operations and things, you think that you’re going to take quite a few days off, so when I walked into work the next morning, they couldn’t actually believe that I was there straight after surgery the previous day. They just weren’t expecting me to have recovered that quickly and to be able to see.”

Achieving better than 20/20 vision, Paula explained what a difference her new visual freedom will have on her life; “It’s just life-changing getting this operation done. I think the service has been absolutely phenomenal. They’ve just been absolutely brilliant.” She is now looking forward to an upcoming holiday where she can enjoy time in the pool with her family without having to worry about her contact lenses.

When asked if she would recommend laser eye surgery at Optical Express Paula didn’t hesitate saying; “I would recommend Optical Express to everybody to get their eyes done because I think the service just been amazing from start to finish and life-changing. I couldn’t have asked for Optical Express to be any better.”