A blind pensioner is able to see her great grandchildren for the first time after surgeons fitted the world’s smallest telescope into her eye.
Joan Gill, 87, is one of thousands of elderly people who suffer from the common eye disease Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD).
She has the ‘dry’ form of the condition that is untreatable and has left her only able to see out of the corners of her eyes.
For the last few years, Joan, of Bradford Road in Winsford, hasn’t been able to see the faces of her great-grandchildren or watch her beloved Coronation Street .
But she’s now become one of the first people in Britain to have the tiny telescope, smaller than a pea, fitted into her eye at a Manchester eye hospital back in November.
Now she is at last able to look into the faces of her eight grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren, play card games and watch television.
Joan told The Chronicle: “I wasn’t completely without sight but it was fading fast.
“Over the years I kept going back to the opticians and getting magnifying glasses, and at one point I had a magnifying glass with a light on it, but I still couldn’t make out things properly.
“I could speak to my grandchildren and see the shapes of then but not see their little faces.
“I could hear the TV but not see what was going on, and when I’d bump into people out shopping with my daughter, I wouldn’t be able to tell who they were – it was quite embarrassing at times.”
When a friend told Joan about an American doctor who operated a CentraSight telescope implant that helps patients with the most severe cases of AMD, she decided to look into it more.
After hearing that Optegra Eye Hospital in Manchester did the treatment, she made an appointment and hasn’t looked back since.
“It was all over quite quickly and was painless; since then I’ve been doing really well,” said Joan.
“It’s not perfect even now but so much better. I feel a lot more confident walking when I am out and about. I can recognise my own daughters and grandchildren when they come to the door befor they have spoken, everything is clear to me and now I can actually follow what people are saying.
“Before, I couldn’t and it was upsetting for everybody.”
