The morning after her laser eye surgery, Megan woke up and, for the first time, admired the sunrise over the fields behind her home without reaching for her glasses. “I could see all the details of everything, it was just amazing,” she shares happily.

It’s an emotional moment for the Police Constable. After wearing contact lenses since she was 14 years old, seeing clearly without any aid is a transformative experience.

Behind the transformation was the 2023 Optical Express ‘Thanks a Million’ campaign, during which NHS and Emergency Service staff received complimentary vision correction. Megan chanced her luck on an application, she was selected for an eligibility consultation and received the good news there and then, sharing a touching moment with her optometrist, “I could feel how happy she was for me which made me even more happy.”

Serving in the Staffordshire Police Force, Megan spends her days patrolling, responding to emergencies and record-keeping her experiences – the demanding role often involves long days and challenging situations: “When I’m at work, when I wear my contact lenses, I can wear them for up to 14 hours in a day. So as soon as I wake up in the morning and then through a night shift potentially, and they will become dry and a few times they’ve popped out.”

Mishaps like this on duty will now be a thing of the past, allowing Megan to focus on her work without the hassles and discomfort that come with long hours of wearing contact lenses.

She shares her excitement for the future: “-the last 24 hours with my vision the way it’s been, I can just imagine what it’s going to be like for the rest of my life having vision without glasses or contact lenses.” 

Optical Express first launched the ‘Thanks a Million’ campaign in 2017, donating £1 million worth of free laser eye surgery to NHS and Emergency Service workers. Since the relaunch in 2023 Optical Express has donated another £1 million worth of laser eye surgery as a way of saying ‘thank you’ to those like Megan who work tirelessly every day to help safeguard our communities.