‘Walking time-bomb’

North West Hub transport office administrator, Suzanne Delve, has been told she could have gone blind were it not for a persistent colleague and the swift actions of her optometrist.

Suzanne had been struggling with blurred vision for some time during lockdown but didn’t believe it was something that needed checking.

It was only after her colleague, Marcel Le-Moignan, convinced her of the risks that she contacted her optometrist, who spotted a bleed on her eye and immediately referred her to Manchester Royal Eye Hospital.

Doctors told her that had she not booked the emergency eye test the life-threatening condition could easily have led to a stroke.

‘I didn’t think it would be anything serious,’ she told the Manchester Evening News. ‘To be honest, I kept putting it off like we all do sometimes, but it was my colleague who convinced me to get it checked.

‘I told him I was fine, but as his wife was an optician, he insisted that it could be a sign of something serious. He didn’t stop pestering me so, as it kept getting worse. I finally decided to make an appointment.’

Medics at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital found that the bleed to Suzanne’s right eye was caused by extremely high blood pressure.

She was told that her blood pressure was so high it was deemed as life threatening and she had to spend three days in hospital for tests.

‘Clearly I’ve been walking around with extremely high blood pressure for quite some time,’ she said. ‘I was basically a walking time-bomb and I had no idea. They told me I could have gone blind or had a stroke if I left it any longer.’

Suzanne is still awaiting scans to discover if she has suffered any damage to her brain, and still has further tests to come in the next six months. She was able to return to work after five weeks of recovery.

‘In the past I’ve put off going for routine eye tests, but I won’t be doing that again,’ she said. ‘They identified something life-threatening that most people wouldn’t even associate with your eyes.

‘If you have a problem with your eyes like I did, absolutely get it checked out, there is always that rare chance that it could be something serious. It’s so vital that people go – it basically saved my life. It was quite a scare.’