After a normal visit to my optician I was told that I would need to go to the Eye Hospital to be referred for further investigations and this is where I was first diagnosed with keratoconus at the age off 22.

I was told I would need to wear soft contacts in both my eyes as they both had the disease. It was quite a wait as this was on the NHS but I can’t fault the hospital I was being treated at.

I carried on fine with my soft lens for about four years and had regular check ups at the hospital until one day I just couldn’t tolerate them in my eye anymore and this is where I was referred back to hard contact lenses.

I found this all quite a different challenge for me dealing with havjng kc and not being able to see properly became quite hard for me when I was driving at night I started seeing ghosting and doubles of stuff and other headlights would dazzle my eyes and it was quite a scary experience.

While waiting for my hard contacts to be made I developed hydrops in my left eye which had become very advanced and had a lot of scarring and I was then put on the waiting list for a corneal transplant. Having hydrops was extremely painful and caused me to have a ‘white mist’ over the front of my eye. It is very hard to explain as I couldn’t really see very well out of that eye and it is very blurry on the best of days without any contacts or glasses.

My better right eye has now progressed from a -1 to a -7.5 from October 2013 and I’m now waiting for cross linking to be done at the Western Eye Hospital later on this year but as I developed hydrops my left eye became a top priority to get the graft done as soon as possible when originally my surgeon wanted the cross linking done first to establish it.

Despite having keratoconus I have still been able to work a full time job and drive up until January this year and do all daily tasks from washing and cleaning and going on holiday. I do have my down days where I get very upset and angry I have his disease but I look on the bright side this isn’t a thing I will have forever in my eyes.

I’m now looking to my operation in the next couple of weeks and I hope that the outcome from that will gradually improve my vision so I can regain driving and carry on have a normal life.

Kirsty Boylan, UK