An actress who has starred alongside Oscar winners Dame Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent is urging anyone needing eye surgery not to put it off as she praises a sight-saving Newcastle clinic for restoring her vision.
Sarah Annett was seeing her career flourish after getting a sought-after role in the 2020 comedy-drama The Duke, about Newcastle’s Kempton Bunton who hit the headlines after confessing to taking a portrait of the Duke of Wellington from London’s National Gallery in 1961.
After the film’s success, Sarah was looking forward to roles in dramas starring Jill Halfpenny and Sheridan Smith, but she noticed the vision in her right eye was beginning to blur.
She was diagnosed with a cataract, which puzzled specialists because at 52 she was young for such a condition. She also had perfect sight in her left eye and she’d not suffered a recent head trauma or been on a course of steroids that might have triggered the cataract.
Sarah booked in at Newmedica Newcastle’s eye clinic to have the surgery. The clinic, at Hadrian House in Balliol Business Park, provides NHS and private cataract surgery and YAG laser treatment for post-operative cataract surgery.
She said: “Doing The Duke was so much fun. I had lunch with Jim Broadbent and he asked me to judge his Geordie accent, which was of course great.
“Then the cataract happened and I was so nervous before the surgery. I hate anything being done to eyes. I can’t even watch when someone puts their contact lenses in. I was petrified, but without sight your life suffers, so I felt I had to have the surgery.
“I shouldn’t have worried because everyone at the clinic was so nice. From going into reception to having the surgery with my consultant, Mr Ayad Shafiq, they all spoke to me calmly and explained what would be happening. They were amazing. I’m so grateful to them.
“The surgery itself was really quick and painless. I didn’t feel anything at all. My sight is crystal clear. I call it my bionic eye. Knowing what I know now, if I had to have my other eye done, I would be fine with it.”
Sarah, who lives in Morpeth, will now appear in the Hartlepool-based ITV drama I Fought The Law, starring Sheridan Smith in the lead role. The series portrays the real-life story of Ann Ming and her fight to change the Double Jeopardy Law to see her daughter’s murderer brought to justice.
After her surgery at Newmedica Newcastle, Sarah sees a bright future for herself and is urging others who need to have the surgery to put aside their fears and press ahead with it.
She added: “I went for the initial eye test because a family member had been diagnosed with glaucoma. I was so shocked when they asked if I’d had a head trauma or steroids, because I hadn’t had either.
“The reason I was asked was because I didn’t fit the typical cataracts profile of an older person, so they thought something had caused the cataract. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with my other eye, which is what makes all this so strange.
“I hadn’t had an eye test since I was at school, so no-one could tell when the cataract started. I thought cataracts only happened to older people. I was lucky it got picked up when it did.
“Just because you don’t tick the boxes as a candidate for cataracts, it doesn’t mean you won’t get them, so I’d definitely urge anyone needing the surgery to have it. It really can be life-changing.”
Mr Ayad Shafiq, Consultant Ophthalmologist and Partner at Newmedica Newcastle, said: “Many people are put off having an operation to remove their cataracts, so Sarah’s story is such a good example of why people have no need to delay their treatment.
“The surgery is quick, painless and make such a difference in day-to-day life, enabling people to maintain their independence for years to come.”
Newmedica Newcastle is owned and led by run by Amanda Bargewell, Operations Director and a team of three local consultant ophthalmologists – Mr Gerard Ainsworth, Mr Ayad Shafiq and Mr Nicholas Wride.
Further information is available at www.newmedica.co.uk/clinics/newcastle or by calling 0191 406 0781.