When I was 15 my eyesight went from good to seriously myopic in what seemed like no time at all. Suddenly I was viewing the world from behind a pair of thick unflattering NHS glasses. The frames of these 'affordable' offerings were common enough in those pre-designer days and gave every appearance of having been produced behind the Iron Curtain. In my twenties I ventured into the exotic world of contact lenses: a seemingly miraculous notion which must have helped (they still do) countless miopes gain a renewed confidence as well as making being out in the rain a delightful experience, at least for a good while. Much later I chose laser surgery and found it an even more miraculous event. The blind saw. I felt reborn. Running alongside this was an abnormality in my right eye. An haemangioma, a vascular oddity lurking hidden inside. It was discovered rather by accident in the late 1970s and resulted in my being a Moorfields patient these past 30+ years. An appreciative one, too. My positive experiences of the remarkable NHS infinitely outnumber the poor ones.
We hear a lot these days about disability, and it is a good thing that so significant a fact, once shied away from, is now spoken of. But little seems to be said of the impact on miopes, especially during their formative teenage years, of having to see the world - and being seen by it - through thick glasses. It has an impact on how we see... ourselves.
We hear a lot these days about disability, and it is a good thing that so significant a fact, once shied away from, is now spoken of. But little seems to be said of the impact on miopes, especially during their formative teenage years, of having to see the world - and being seen by it - through thick glasses. It has an impact on how we see... ourselves.
