Surgeons at the Cathedral Eye Clinic in Belfast have fitted Mrs McCall’s eye with a device already being dubbed the ‘millimetre miracle’. She was the first person in Ireland to have the operation.

The iStent is a tiny piece of titanium – weighing just 60 microgrammes  – and is the smallest medical device ever to be implanted into the human body. It drains fluid away lowering eye pressure from a sensitive part at the back of the eye which causes the glaucoma illness. Now Mrs McCall is set to have the same operation on her right eye.

Cathedral Eye Clinic Consultant Mr Colin Willoughby explained that glaucoma is a progressive and irreversible illness caused when the optic nerve is damaged by a build-up of fluid. Patients begin to lose peripheral vision and can go blind.

Mr Willoughby said:

This is a massive step forward for the treatment of glaucoma and has the potential to help so many people.

We have now had time to assess Mrs McCall and we are delighted with the result. More importantly though is that she is delighted and we are planning to schedule treatment of her other eye soon.

Andrew Spence, director at Cathedral Eye Clinic, said:

This is a revolutionary step forward for the treatment of glaucoma, an illness which medical science has been battling for years. There is still no known cure.

The iStent procedure stops the progression of glaucoma and has the potential to save the eyesight of many people.

Mrs McCall, a mother of six from Alliance Avenue in north Belfast, said:

The stent procedure has changed my life. My eyesight was getting worse and the procedure has stopped that.

Mr Willoughby was brilliant throughout. I went into hospital in the morning and I was home in time for lunch. Sure you couldn’t beat that.

I used to have to put three different types of eye drops into my eye in the morning and two at night. I’m hoping to have the other eye done soon, so I won’t have to use drops at all.

I would hate to go blind. That is a possibility with glaucoma and now I don’t have to worry about that.

The Cathedral Eye Clinic carried out the procedure for free; and Mr Willoughby also removed a cataract in another operation so that eye is brilliant now. It’s like somebody just switched on a light.

I can’t wait to have the second eye done. It will change my life.