Having a particularly high prescription, Jos struggled to wear glasses as their thick lenses often made them feel heavy and uncomfortable. Switching to contact lenses when she was 17, she wore them for most of her adult life, but was keen to find an alternative vision correction solution when she found out that the plastic waste created from her contact lenses and their packaging was having a hugely detrimental effect on our environment.

“It’s all the plastic that comes with all the contact lenses, and I am trying to do my little bit to cut down on the plastic waste,” she explains.

Since many of her family members also suffered from cataracts, and struggled to get NHS treatment due to long waiting lists and strict criteria, Jos was eager to take preventative measures. “I thought if that is something that is likely to happen, it’s like a pre-emptive strike,” she says. With lens replacement surgery both correcting vision and preventing the development of cataracts, she was delighted that she could address both issues at once: “I’ve known so many people in my family that have had cataract surgery, I just thought ‘why wait?’, get it done and get my eyesight corrected in one swoop.”

While she didn’t feel nervous on the day of surgery, Jos was still relieved to find that staff members were available to address any concerns and answer any questions: “The staff have been amazing. I’m quite laid back, so they didn’t have to do anything, but I felt I could ask any questions if I wanted to.” In the hours following treatment, her vision improved far more quickly than she had expected, commenting that she had felt ‘absolutely elated’. “For the first time ever I’ve been able to look at my phone and not put my reading spectacles on. I was expecting to have to do that because it’s so soon after surgery,” she says.

Jos has now achieved better than 20|20 vision, and is excited to start living life with complete visual freedom. “Just the thought of getting up and going out without ever saying, ‘Right, I’ll just put my lenses in’. It’s a small thing but it’s massive when it’s your whole life,” she explains. When asked if she would recommend lens replacement surgery at Optical Express to friends and family, Jos didn’t hesitate: “I would recommend Optical Express because the service you get is excellent and from what I can tell the results are amazing!”