For the record I am the bosses wife. I’ve thought about having my eyes ‘done’ long before my husband joined Advance VisionCare and I imagine for many of the usual reasons. Nick, originally an optician, had fitted me with a variety of contact lenses over the years, but my tolerance to my gas permeable lenses had declined and I didn’t want to go back to glasses full time. Only one solution then…

Nick was particularly unhelpful in my quest for information and understanding of the process and procedure! He felt that I should get the independent opinion of the clinical team at Harley Street, in the same way as ‘ordinary’ patients and make my mind up for myself. So that is exactly what I did and seeing the fantastic laser suite he had worked so hard to get set-up and discussed things with the people behind the names I knew, I must admit I felt much better and quite proud of what my old man had achieved.

Well the good news was I have thick corneas and there would be no problems and the lovely Mr. Pillai (the surgeon) advised me that with the Zyoptix ‘wavefront’ technology I may well actually see better than I did with glasses or contact lenses which all sounded very promising. So I booked in for surgery, which in case you are wondering, I did have to pay for.

I was very nervous but the team took great care of me (Angela, the Senior Counsellor, actually held my hand all the way through, bless her) and I couldn’t believe how quickly I could see even immediately after surgery - absolutely amazing. Nick always said that Mr. Pillai was one of the best in the world and was an unbeatable combination with Zyoptix. I just thought ‘well he would say that’, but how wrong I was, every word is true.

This was backed up by Helen, my optometrist at Portsea Island Opticians in Portsmouth: she was almost as amazed as I was at just how well I was seeing the day after my surgery when she saw me for my 24 hour check-up. By my 1 week check she said I was seeing 6/4 in each eye (I’m told 6/6, is the same as 20/20 vision) which I can confirm is much better than normal, as I can now see things more clearly than I’ve ever been able too.

Would I recommend Advance VisionCare? Well of course, but for all the right reasons; the staff is expert and caring with it, the clinic is a wonderfully calm and relaxing place, the technology is state-of-the-art and Mr. Pillai is one of the most modest and unassuming consultants I have ever met, as well as clearly (excuse the pun!) being the very best.