I studied optometry at UMIST in Manchester and qualified in 1978 after which I worked in the practice where I had been a pre-registered optometrist. The practice owner, Dr John Storey, was an amazingly inventive person and loved a challenge. Someone only had to mention “difficult patient” to him and he was there like a shot! I learnt so much about contact lens fitting from him and I owe my enthusiasm for the impossible to him.

In 1981 I left his practice to do my MSc which centred around optical higher order aberrations and their impact on accommodation. In that year, I also got married, bought a house practice, locumed and did hospital contact lens clinics. I guess this is where I learned to multi task!

I continued in private practice for 20 years and also would take on any difficult case that came along. I became interested in contact lens design, especially in respect to manipulating spherical aberration to improve contact lens performance. Anecdotally, I began to see a pattern where myopia appeared to slow its progress in patients fitted with aberration controlled CLs. I also developed an interest in using such technology in the field of orthoptics – I found that many so called “amblyopic” eyes could improve in visual performance using aspheric CLs and this in itself could improve binocular function.