A woman was diagnosed with a brain tumour the size of an orange which threatened to kill her within six months after a routine eye test.
Michelle Crawford, 44, experienced almost no symptoms at all, aside from a slight blurriness in one eye while wearing contact lenses.
The mother-of-two from Lanark, Lanarkshire, received life-saving treatment in 2015 to remove the tumour after she was referred by her optometrist.
The grade one meningioma tumour was found at the back of her brain and thought to be the size of an orange.
A number of surgeons and specialists from across Scotland gathered at Hairmyres Hospital in East Kilbride to observe her surgery and monitor her recovery because it was so rare.
Michelle said that she had taken a while to get around to booking an appointment at with eye doctor Rubena Kerr at her local Specsavers.
Mrs Crawford said: “It took a few months for me to book an appointment at Specsavers as I didn’t think the blurriness in my eye was anything serious.
“Rubena was really thorough and helped me try out different contact lenses to see if that would fix the problem.
“After a few appointments, I happened to mention that the problem was only at the side of my vision in my left eye and that I was also having a problem with things appearing too bright.
“After conducting a visual fields test, Rubena referred me to Hairmyres.
“I expected the appointment to be a few weeks later but when I found out I had to go the very next day, I started to worry something serious might be wrong.”
A CT scan detected the tumour and eight weeks later, Michelle underwent a 15-hour operation to have it removed.
She suffered from aphasia and was left unable to speak for three days because the tumour was next to the part of the brain which controls language.
A piece of Michelle’s skull was removed during the operation which was replaced 10 months later with a metal plate and has also lost the vision in her left eye.
Her recovery process also included having to relearn words to build her speech back up and she is yet to undergo surgery to correct drooping to her eye.
She added: “My consultant was amazed at the progress I made after three months of working very hard to regain my speech.
“Aside from losing my sight in my left eye and, as a result, being unable to drive for the rest of my life, I have been extremely lucky.
“I completely believe that some sort of gut instinct told me to get my vision checked out.
“I was so close to not bothering as it’s easy to put it on the back burner when it didn’t feel like a major problem.
“I’ve since found out that if I hadn’t had the surgery when I did, it’s very likely my condition would have deteriorated very quickly and I wouldn’t have been well enough for it to go ahead.”
