3:26pm Wednesday 6th September 2006
By Jane Lavender
BUSINESSMAN Gary Lynch said going, going, gone to his eyesight misery when he successfully bid for laser eye surgery at a charity auction.
The 47-year-old former rugby coach had been struggling with deteriorating eyesight for most of his adult life.
Father-of-two Mr Lynch, of Reedley Drive, Worsley, was at a fund-raising black-tie charity bash at the Palace Hotel in Manchester in May when the laser eye surgery lot was announced. The event was raising money for disabled Salford rugby player Chris McGuirk.
Mr Lynch, a director of Maceplast UK Limited, had been considering paying to have the surgery performed, normally around £2,000, but in the end he paid only £800 - and says it has changed his life.
He said: "It must have been fate that my wife, Lesley, and I were there on the night as we were invited because my company had contributed to the charity fund.
"I had the procedure shortly afterwards and the result has been just brilliant. Ever since my early 20s I have had to put up with glasses and contact lenses and all the paraphernalia that goes with them and was getting increasingly irritated."
Mr Lynch's operation, at Rosen Eye Associates in Salford Quays in July, took just over an hour as he had one eye corrected for close vision, and the other for distance.
He said: "I could clearly see the clock on the hospital wall and when my wife drove me home I could read the car number plates in the distance. It was just fantastic.
"Shortly afterward I went to a restaurant and was able to read the menu. I find it easier to work out in the gym and work on a computer and I am looking forward to going on holiday to Cyprus and being able to swim without worrying about losing my contact lenses."
l Chris McGuirk, aged 21, from Halton Bank, Pendleton was paralysed from the neck down after an accident while playing rugby union for De La Salle Sports Club, Salford in December 2005. An appeal has been launched to pay for medical care and a specially adapted house.
More information from www.chrismcguirk.net
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