‘I thought this is it, I’m on the way out'

The author who regained her vision

Dr Lynley Hood was (almost) blind, but now can see.

“I was reading in bed and my left eye went blurry, I put it down to tiredness, and put the light out.”

The blurry patch was there the next morning, with specialists determining there had been some sort of haemorrhage, with macular degeneration – a common eye disorder among people over 50 – and glaucoma, ruled out.

Over the coming weeks her right eye “would start to behave like an old television set . . . it had gone all staticky, and that was my supposed good eye,” Hood, 79, said of what unfolded in late 2009.

“I suddenly realised if my right eye goes like my left . . . what will I do, how will I cope?”

Her first thought was: “I’ve got to read all those books on my bedside table”.

“My second thought was can I even find the buttons on my phone to dial 111.”