Ans Taekema-Kromhout (52): 'I’ve had glasses since I was six. My parents only allowed me contact lenses when I was 18. You can imagine how jealous I was when my sister exchanged her jam-jar glasses for these sought-after lenses.'



'My eyes did not get any better; my refractive error was – 7.5 and although lenses look better than the jam jars, they are not handy when you enjoy swimming and sailing. Hard wind, diving into the water, you can’t do it with contact lenses. In a round about way - I had actually been looking for laser treatment - I ended up with the ARTIFLEX® lens. A lens implanted through a super thin cut. No stitches, virtually no pain and a good result.

'It was an exciting time. The surgery itself was not too bad, and was finished really quickly. Still, it is strange all this fiddling with your eye. Fortunately, the support was really good and I could talk with the consultant and the nursing staff during the surgery. After the first treatment I was given an eye cap that could be removed the next day. I held my hand in front of my bad eye to see what I could see – I could read number plates! An incredible experience.'

'I am really happy with my new eyes. Swimming and sailing I can do without any problems, applying eye make up provides no difficulties and I have stopped looking for my contact lenses!'