The day Debra went for an eye test... and saved her life

DEBRA Bennett is eternally grateful to her optician Rowena Ibbotson . She believes the recently qualified optometrist saved her life.

A routine check-up at Pollards in Wakefield revealed that Debra had a large tumour in her eye.

Now the 43-year-old is urging people to get their eyes tested regularly.

“You only tend to go to the optician when you think you need your eyes tested.

“But Rowena was able to diagnose the fact that I had a tumour behind my eye just from looking in it. I wouldn’t have known it was there if it hadn’t been for Rowena.”

Debra, who has multiple sclerosis had suffered from optic neuritis, inflammation of the optic nerve associated with her MS in 2005, but had hardly visited the opticians since.

“Every time I had a pain in my eye I thought it was the optic neuritis so I didn’t bother going back to the opticians.”

It was only when the Wakefield opticians gave a talk about a new 3D scanner to Debra’s MS support group that she decided to make a routine appointment.

“I wasn’t even at the talk but my friend told me about it so I thought I’d make an appointment.”

It was during this appointment that Rowena noticed a dark mass on one of Debra’s eyes.

“I looked into Debra’s eye first just using a special torch and could see the mass.

“I was pretty certain what I was looking at but I was only recently qualified and had only been in the job a few weeks so I wanted to be certain.

Rowena had a more detailed look through a microscope and did a 3D scan of Debra’s eye then immediately contacted her GP who then sent her to an ophthalmologist where she was diagnosed with a malignant tumour.

Debra explains: “My eye sight seemed fine so it didn’t occur to me to have my eyes tested. I’d always thought that going to the Opticians was just for prescription changes, and since my vision remained the same, I hadn’t made an appointment in over four years.

“After reading the leaflet on eye health and the 3D eye scan from Pollards, I thought that I should probably get checked out. Rowena showed me the 3D images of my eye and noticed that there was a dark mass on one of my eyes. Although I asked her to print it out Rowena told me that she was going to fax it to my GP immediately.”

Debra couldn’t believe the speed with which everything then happened.

Her eye examination was on a Saturday. After receiving the fax, her GP called her on the Monday and she was in hospital by the Tuesday. The consultant in the ophthalmology department decided to refer her to specialists at Sheffield Hallamshire Hospital.

“I had been looking into symptoms and effects on the internet to try and prepare myself for the worst, but it was still such a shock to hear the consultant say I had a choroidal melanoma – a malignant tumour.

“Unfortunately the tumour itself could not be operated on in case it had spread to any where else in my body. I was told that I only had two options to stop the cancer from spreading; I would either have to have proton beam radiotherapy, where a high dose of radiation is delivered to a localised area, or I would have to have the eye removed.”

Rowena decided to have the radiotherapy first to try to save her eye. She says: “I began the therapy immediately, having a four day intense treatment and since then have been back for regular checks. At my most recent review I was told that the radiotherapy was starting to kick in. The shape of the tumour is starting to indent slightly and the excess fluid surrounding it has now dried up, which is great news for me. One down side to having the treatment is that I’m starting to lose my peripheral vision, which feels as though curtains are being drawn around my eyes. I’ve been told that this is likely to get worse over the next two years, but it does mean that the radiotherapy is working.”

Debra will have another scan in six months and then will have to go to regular reviews for the rest of her life. “They’ll hopefully tell me that the tumour is going down in size, otherwise I will have to have my eye removed.”

Now Debra is urging people to ensure they visit their opticians regularly.

“I always assumed that hospitals dealt with problems like this and never realised that it could have been detected by a simple appointment at the opticians. I’m now telling everyone I know about the importance of having regular eye health checks.

“Rowena was so helpful and I cannot praise her enough in her quick reaction. I really want people to understand that just because your eye sight hasn’t deteriorated it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t visit your local opticians for a thorough eye examination.”

Rowena says it is a common misconception that people have about the optician.

“People think that unless they have a problem with their eyesight there is no need to visit the optician which couldn’t be further from the truth,” she says.

“We are trained to look for all sorts of problems. Tumours like Debra’s are rare and you don’t expect to see many in your entire career, but I saw one in my first few weeks in the job. If you do detect a problem in the eyes early on then the good news is they can normally be treated.

“People should visit their optician every two years although if you are over the age of 70, have a history of glaucoma or are under 16 it should be every year. But often life gets in the way and unless people have a problem they see it as a low priority.”

As for Debra, she is getting on with her life.

“Because I have lived with MS for so long I have had to accept that you’ve got to live for today and just get on with it. I am losing my sight a bit but you have to stay positive. It is a fatal type of tumour and if I my friend hadn’t picked up the leaflet and Rowena hadn’t spotted the tumour then I might not be here now.”