Dear LPG,

Do you need glasses to see properly?  I have always been one of those people who reach for mine before I actually get out of bed in the mornings, if I have not left them on my face overnight.  I don’t feel so in the minority these days though because many of us have problems with our eyes as we get older. 

I remember reading about how important it is to have those windows to your soul checked regularly as you get older because of all the other illnesses that can be learned about during an eye test these days and, as we get older having a bi-annual test becomes free in the UK.

A quick Google on the subject taught me a thing or two although a lot of the information is designed to convert you to wearing the information-provider’s products.  It’s interesting to note that contact lenses were thought about by Leonardo da Vinci as early as in the 1580’s and developed in the late 1880s, but to protect eyes rather than to correct vision. 

Wearing them instead of glasses only really started to get popular in the 1960s. I remember my first pair being little hard plastic things that I often forgot once they were in.  I had back up glasses and often put them on having forgotten that the lenses were in until looking through both sets of lenses made it impossible to see anything.  Apparently I am typical though because, now I am so old that I have given up fluttering my eye lashes and I don’t do aerobics and martial arts anymore, there is no real reason to wear them and the last set I bought have long since passed their sell by date without even leaving the box.

I found some online evidence that tells that when looking at the larger European picture, only 9% of Brits wear contact lenses in favour of glasses, as opposed to 30% of Swedes.  Perhaps that fact shows that, as a nation we are not quite as vain as they are.

Then there is the laser surgery route.  Nevertheless, I think I will give that a miss altogether but, as a person who cannot see beyond the end of their nose without help, I can see the advantages for some. I have many an older friend who has needed to take a serious look at a laser beam to correct cataracts and I suppose it is a similar experience.  However, at my time of life, I will just stick to the glasses for now.

I have waffled on but I did have an ulterior motive.  My serious message is…

Readers, whatever your preference, I hope that this post serves as a reminder to check when you last had a test and, if necessary, become a reason to get your eyes checked…

YG, Bellingham

YG shares what she found online…

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LPG found some charities whose work might be remembered today…

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