Celebrations as Plymouth clinic’s 10,000th patient has surgery to save sight  

save sight 

A talented pebble Picasso has picked up her brushes again after surgery to save her sight. 

As a member of the Plymouth Pebble Art group, Teresa Honey-Neville is an avid painter of stones, leaving her eye-catching artwork in unusual places so others can find them. 

Her pebbles are often taken far and wide by those who discover them, with Lapland being the furthest her colourful creations have known to have travelled. 

But recently Teresa developed cataracts, which are when the lens of a person’s eye develops cloudy patches. Over time these patches usually become bigger.  

Although cataracts are relatively common and easily treatable, they cause blurred vision and eventually blindness if untreated. 

Teresa, who lives in St Germans, realised she needed treatment when she struggled to differentiate between a bird and a rodent in her garden, so she opted for surgery at Newmedica Plymouth eye health clinic – and now she can carry on with her art. 

She said: “I love decorating the pebbles and they seem to give a lot of people pleasure, but I knew my sight was getting bad. One day I was looking at the birdfeeder and I saw a woodpecker.  

“I called my husband to come in quickly. When he came in, I said, ‘Isn’t it beautiful? I love woodpeckers.’ He looked at me and said, ‘That’s not a woodpecker – it’s a rat.’ I knew then that I needed to have my eyes done.  

“The surgery was very quick and painless, and now I can see so clearly. I don’t need glasses at all except to read.” 

When Teresa visited Newmedica Plymouth, she was greeted in a reception area decked out in gold-coloured balloons and she was presented with a bunch of flowers. 

She added: “It was so funny. There were these huge gold balloons when I arrived at the clinic, and I wondered what was going on. Then they gave me flowers and told me I was their 10,000th patient. It was wonderful. I’m still grinning my head off.” 

Teresa, who is 73 and now able to enjoy gardening and walking after her surgery, is urging people with cataracts not to delay the surgery because of fear. 

She added: “I’m terrified of going to the dentist, but I was okay with this. I think that because I’ve worn contact lenses since I was 40, I’m used to my eyes being touched.  

“The surgery was very quick and painless, and now I can see so clearly. I don’t need glasses at all except to read. People certainly shouldn’t put off surgery like this because they’re worried about it. It can change their life.” 

The Newmedica Plymouth clinic is based in Derriford, providing services for private patients and NHS patients, which assists the NHS with reducing its waiting lists. 

The clinic is owned and run by consultant ophthalmologists Mr Tom Cudrnak, Mr Nick Edmeades and Mr Vasant Raman, as well as operations director Amanda Champion.   

Amanda said: “Mrs Honey-Neville really has been a wonderful patient and we’re delighted she was our 10,000^th cataract operation. We’re so pleased to have changed the lives of those thousands of people, and we’re now looking forward to the next 10,000.” 

Teresa’s sight-saving experience came as research commissioned by ophthalmology business Newmedica showed the importance Plymouth people place on looking after your sight in order to achieve bucket list goals. 

The study, to mark National Eye Health Week (22-28 September 2025), revealed that those polled in the South West currently have an average of eight items on their bucket lists – and have managed to tick off two since hitting 50. 

Almost half said it’s vital to keep working through their bucket lists as they get older, with 56 per cent admitting they’re more aware than ever that life is short. 

But barriers remain for the over-50s, with cost (55 per cent) and health or fitness concerns (39 per cent) the main hurdles standing in their way. 

In addition to cataract-related procedures such as Teresa’s, Newmedica Plymouth undertakes YAG laser treatment.  

To find out more, visit www.newmedica.co.uk/clinics/plymouth