I didn't really realise I had 'funny eyes' until I started at college and had to do a large amount of reading. I did know that I had been finding it harder and harder to concentrate at school. I couldn't really absorb what I was reading and had to read the same passage up to a dozen times to let it sink in, but didn't connect the problem to my eyesight. Then one afternoon I was reading a book in the garden wearing some heart shaped sunglasses with bright red lenses and I was suddenly able to read properly. I took off the sunglasses and looked at the text again and realised that without them it appeared to be moving - undulating like waves or jumbling the words in the line up out of order. Each letter also appeared to be surrounded by an ethereal glow. Putting them on again everything became serene - the glow disappeared, the lines became still and the words were once again in their correct order. This was in 1996 and at the time I didn't know that what I was experiencing was not only relatively common but also had a name - Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome. Apparently, many people who have this do not realise that they have a problem until they are told or accidentally discover it like me, but assume that everybody sees writing like that.

At school this had made me restless, frustrated and difficult to control as I struggled through the work having particularly bad problems with maths and grammar. Where I had been considered a bright and well-behaved girl at primary school I dropped into the lower streams at secondary school and my frustration manifested in more and more unruly behaviour until I eventually left early as my vision problems became worse.

I went to numerous opticians over the years but nobody seemed to have heard of people experiencing sight problems of this sort at that time and I was prescribed pair after pair of glasses which were effectively useless, as although they corrected my minor short sightedness the problems with the glow and movement of the text remained the same. The heart shaped sunglasses had long since met their end and nowhere could I find the right density of red lenses sunglasses again to try and correct the problem myself. By this time my vision was having an extremely detrimental effect on my life both at work and at home. I couldn't work on computers due to the strain it put on my eyes which led to nausea and migraines, and adding up money when I was working in retail was impossible due to the jumbling effect of my vision - each time I would add up the same amounts of money I would get a different result. This affected my confidence enormously making me question my own abilities and intelligence when I couldn't solve simple problems. At home reading, which had always been my favourite pastime, was becoming less and less comfortable and frustrating as my inability to absorb the meaning of each paragraph became worse.

Eventually, my mum suggested that I visit an Optician whom our family Doctor recommended very highly due to her reputation for having specialist knowledge and equipment. This optician was Jan Juul. When I went to see Jan for a standard sight test I mentioned in passing about my eye problem and the help that I had found from wearing my red lens sunglasses. She conducted the eye examination as usual but afterwards told me that she had hidden a test amongst the others which could highlight my particular problem and that the answer I had chosen in this test was textbook for people that were suffering from Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome. Jan suggested that I get a Colorimeter test done with Claire Brass, a member of her team who specialises in finding the right colour tint for your glasses which can then be combined with my normal prescription for short sightedness to produce some very special and unique glasses which I hoped would revolutionise my daily life.

I had a long appointment with Claire which started with her asking me to read a large block of text which she timed. She then sat me before the Colorimeter where different colour combinations were displayed until I found one that worked for me. I was surprised to see colours other than red appear and asked Claire why. She explained that different colours of lenses could help correct the vision of people suffering from Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome and that while I might find relief with red others might find the same result with a blue, yellow, green or purple - whatever their own personal remedy dictated from the thousands of possible combinations. My personal prescription was a deep rose shade which she mocked up for me and then asked me to re-read the same block of text I had read at the start of our session. I was astonished to learn when she had finished timing me that I had knocked a substantial number of seconds off my initial reading showing the immediate improvement that the rose tint provided.

I use my glasses for reading, working at the computer, to watch the TV and when I go to the cinema and the effects have been dramatic. Previously, when I used to go and watch a film it would appear to me like a series of stills as my brain would try and digest the information in each scene and then wouldn't catch up until several stills later when it would have to go through the same process again. Now the film is smooth with no more stuttered images and the outline of the characters sharp (although they do look like they have been out in the sun too long initially but you soon forget about that!) Working on the computer is also now much easier and I can work for substantially longer periods than before. But for me the thing that has brought me the most joy is being able to read a novel again and experience that wonderful feeling of being lost in another world with the characters, something that had pretty much eluded me since I was a child. With that pleasure alone, what a simple pair of tailor-made glasses has awarded me is utterly priceless. My self-confidence and productivity has also improved at work and both are growing day by day as I realise that I am actually much cleverer than I thought! I cannot thank Jan and Claire enough for my lovely rose tinted spectacles and the happiness and positive changes they have brought with them.