Part 1: It Takes A Mountain Load Of Desire For Katie

There is no measurement – yet – to register the strength of desire. If such a calibrated table were to exist it might consider the case of 32-year-old Katie from Potters Bar. Her desire to undergo Laser Eye Surgery was so strong that it managed to outweigh a terrifying lifelong fainting habit.

Ah well, you might think, many of us feel a little bit queasy at the thought of a laser reshaping our corneas. But, despite passing out at the merest prick of a finger, Katie is no latter day Sleeping Beauty – she suffers from an inexplicable fainting condition. At the smallest sign of injury – like stubbing a toe or nipping her thumb in a sunshade umbrella – the 32 year old admin manager blacks out.

And these aren’t gentle swoon like faints as favoured by Victorian ladies whose corsets were laced too tightly. According to her mother Beryl, prior to passing out, Katy feels clammy and shivery before going rigid like a board and crashing down.

To illustrate the seriousness of her fainting problem, Katie told me that one afternoon while at work she removed a staple from a sheaf of papers. The next thing she was aware of was regaining consciousness in an ambulance at the A and E department of the local hospital.

Katie, who hated wearing the glasses she had needed since the age of seventeen, had considered the possibility of Laser Eye Surgery but had always reluctantly dismissed it due to the fainting issue.

Although it isn’t painful and there aren’t any needles involved in Laser Eye Surgery, If the very thought of it terrified Katy, how could she ever have her eye sight corrected?

The answer is with a mountain load of desire on her part; and under the caring and careful guidance of the London Vision Clinic team.

Watch this space … (next in the series)