Newcastle student’s sight restored following rare diagnosis for someone so young

A student from Newcastle has had his sight restored after undergoing cataract surgery at Newmedica at an exceptionally young age. 

Josh Lloyd (23) was assured by his grandma, who had also recently underwent cataract surgery, that the procedure was nothing to worry about. And following the surgery, he was able to return to his favourite hobbies including playing video games, going to football matches and even having the chance to recently see Oasis in concert. 

Josh has suffered with eczema for as long as he can remember and had been prescribed a stronger steroid cream while awaiting phototherapy treatment, and this may have increased his risk of developing cataracts. 

Just ahead of his 23^rd birthday and after he had started the stronger steroids, Josh woke up one morning to find that one of his eyes was blurry. 

Josh said: ‘I initially thought that my eye was just strained as I had recently started working in an office and training to become a debt recovery paralegal, so I’m now working on a computer for a lot of my working day.  

‘But when my blurry vision became worse, I started to grow concerned and booked an appointment at an independent opticians in Newcastle. 

‘Although the steroid treatment may have made me more susceptible to cataracts, the optician was still surprised it had developed at such a young age and referred me to Newmedica.’ 

Josh’s story is particularly unusual because the average age for people having cataracts is generally in the 70s or 80s. 

Mr Gerard Ainsworth, Consultant Ophthalmologist and Clinical Partner at Newmedica's eye clinic in Newcastle, added: ‘Cataracts can be a rare side effect of strong steroid treatment, but it is still very unusual to perform cataract surgery on someone as young as Josh. He’s certainly the youngest patient we’ve had at Newmedica Newcastle. 

‘Cataracts are a very common eye condition that can develop when the eye’s clear lens forms cloudy or misty patches, usually as we get older. During surgery we remove the cloudy lens and replace it with a new, artificial lens.’ 

Ahead of the surgery, Josh was nervous but explained: ‘The thought of undergoing eye surgery was daunting but I didn’t want to leave it to get worse, particularly because I’m only in my early 20s. I didn’t want it to affect me being able to live my life and continue with my training. 

‘My grandma had also recently underwent cataract surgery, so she reassured me it wasn’t anything to worry about. 

‘My initial appointment at Newmedica ran really smoothly. The staff were all friendly and took the time to ensure each step of the process was thoroughly explained to me. The clinic itself was clean and modern which also helped to alleviate my nerves. 

‘My main worry was if I’d be able to see the surgeon working on my eye, but this wasn’t the case and it was just as the team described it would be – I could just see a bright light. I also got to see the lens the surgeon was putting in my eye, which really helped me to understand what was about to happen. 

‘The surgery only lasted somewhere between two-and-a-half and three songs on the radio – focusing on the radio and breaking down the surgery song by song helped me through it. 

‘In the days following the surgery, my sight began to improve and the surgeon was even able to reduce the astigmatism in my eye during the procedure.  

‘Now I’m about to start phototherapy for my eczema, I hopefully shouldn’t be at risk of developing a cataract in my other eye, but if I ever did need surgery, I know that my grandma was right – it isn’t anything to worry about.’ 

Newmedica Newcastle is owned and run by consultant ophthalmologists Mr Gerard Ainsworth, Miss Lucy Clarke, Mr Ayad Shafiq and Mr Nicholas Wride alongside Operations Director, Amanda Bargewell. 

The clinic, based at Balliol Business Park, provides treatments for a range of eye conditions, including cataract surgery, YAG laser treatment and oculoplastics.  

Mr Ainsworth added: ‘It’s a very common worry for our patients to be concerned about seeing the surgery take place but that certainly isn’t the case. We have lots of ways we can support patients to help settle any nerves as best we can, including having a member of our team hold their hand throughout the process or giving them worry stones to hold during the procedure.’