27-year-old Victoria Maddock thought she only had a stray lash in her eye.

Three days later, she woke up without vision.

She had been struggling with blurry vision in her right eye but treated the problem with eye drops. When she started to feel like she was “looking through milk bottle bottoms” she went to an optician.

Maddock was diagnosed with iridocorneal endothelial (ICE) syndrome. She also developed glaucoma, a condition that usually occurs in people over the age of 70.

She underwent surgery to drain fluid in her eye two times as the first time wasn’t successful.

“If I had left it even days later, I could have lost sight in my right eye completely due to the build-up of pressure – it doesn’t even bear thinking about,” Maddock said.

“People think that glaucoma is an old person’s disease, but I’m living proof that it can affect anyone at any age.

“I’m just so grateful that I didn’t hold off any longer than I did to get it checked out by a specialist.

“For a few days my eye had been playing up and I thought nothing of it whatsoever.

“Then one day I woke up and I couldn’t see out of my right eye at all, it was like a thick film had been placed over it.”

She was told by doctors that the pressure in her right eye was very high. Opticians told her to go straight to Queen Alexandra Hospital where she was diagnosed with ICE syndrome.

“By the end of the initial assessment I was surrounded by a group of doctors, all insisting on taking a look at my eye, as it was so unusual to see ICE in someone my age,” she said.

Symptoms of ICE include abnormalities of the iris, swelling of the cornea, and a high risk of developing glaucoma.

“It was pretty nerve-wracking. No one could believe I had glaucoma so young. One doctor said she’d only read about cases like mine before,” she said.

Doctors booked her for a trabeculectomy, which involves removing part of the iris to drain fluid more easily. After the second operation, her eye has remained stable.

Maddock added: “I never in a million years would have thought this could have happened to me.

“I wear my glasses for watching TV and going to the cinema and that’s about it.

“Now I’ve insisted all my friends and family get their eyes checked as soon as possible. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got 20/20 vision, or if you’re as blind as a bat – just go.”

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