Rebecca Ryan is an actor from Manchester best known for her roles as Debbie Gallagher in the Channel 4 series Shameless and Gemma Dean in the BBC medical drama Casualty. Acting has always been Rebeca’s passion but poor vision meant she sometimes struggled on set. “Up close was absolutely fine I could see everything but you step further away and it's harder to see the features and the expressions that are given off. So that's quite difficult when you're acting.” This led to get laser eye surgery at Optical Express.

However, this was not the only motivating factor for Rebecca when it came to making the decision to have the surgery, “I think that getting married was the biggest kick up the backside because I thought I really want to walk down the aisle and be able to see my fiancé’s face and to see his reaction. Otherwise it would have just been a blur and I just wouldn't have got the whole sort of experience of it.”

Rebecca had her surgery done at the Optical Express Bridgewater clinic in Manchester and was delighted with the service she received, “They couldn't have been nicer. The staff and the nurses just put you at ease straight away. I couldn’t speak highly enough about them. They made me feel really comfortable and talked me through it and about everything that was going to happen and sure I was prepared.”

After the surgery, Rebecca was amazed at how quickly she could see the results, “I think it was when I was walking out of the shop, actually, and I just looked up and everything is normally, when people are walking in crowds it’s just a kind of blur and everyone is kind of muddled up together, and I just thought ‘I can see individual faces and I can see the words on that sign’ I’d never be able to see that. That was like ‘oh wow!’”

What would Rebecca say to anyone thinking of having laser eye surgery? “From start to finish my whole experience with it has been amazing. It’s just great to walk around glasses free and being able to see. It’s just the little things in day to day life that make it so much easier and if you can do it, I’d definitely recommend it to anyone. Absolutely.”