A gran lost an eye after it became infected while she wore contact lenses in the shower.
Marie Mason, 54, contracted the infection in her left eye after a microscopic amoeba in tap water managed to get between her contact lens and cornea. She began to notice something was wrong in 2015 when it constantly felt like there was something stuck in her eye.
Soon after, her vision began to deteriorate. After visiting the opticians, she was immediately rushed to the hospital where she was told that a bacteria known as Acanthamoeba Keratitis was living inside of her eye.
Before the incident, Marie wore 30-day contact lenses, which meant that she showered in them. Because the infection can commonly be found in tap water, that is believed where the infection stemmed from.
Over time, the infection grew and began to feast on Marie's cornea, causing her vision to rapidly deteriorate. For five years Marie was on a variety of medications as well as a number of unsuccessful operations - including three cornea transplants.
Eventually, doctors were forced to remove her eye. "I had to stop work, because at the time I worked in a kitchen in a school, and I was having to put eye drops in every half an hour so it just wasn't going to work because it's so painful," she said.
"I also had to go to the hospital two to three times a week, and sometimes even more. I was also in eye casualty a lot because something would flare up, so with all the times I had to go into hospital, I couldn't have gone to work because it wouldn't have been worth it anyway.
"There was just lots of hospital visits, lots of eye drops, lots of operations and procedures and lots of pain." Now Marie, of Leicestershire, is hoping to raise awareness and call for better warnings on contact lens packs over the risk of contamination.
"Wear contact lenses, that's absolutely fine, but you've just got to be careful - it's the water thing more than anything. I would just like the manufacturers to put more warnings on the packaging about water and contact lenses.
"I just don't want anyone else to go through it really." Fortunately, after two years of having her eye removed, Marie is now living a normal life again.
She has returned to working as an admin assistant, working for her husband Jonathan, 50, and volunteers with her local church. "My life is alright now, I haven't gone back to work to the place I left, but I now work for my husband.
"I'm also heavily involved with the church where I do a lot of voluntary work so my life has changed, but it's a nice change, and it's different. The only thing I've not gone back to is driving, I stopped driving quite early on in the journey because I wasn't comfortable with it, and I haven't got the confidence to go back to it, so that's the main thing that's changed for me.
"I do struggle sometimes because my vision on my left side is rubbish, well it's not there. It's quite hard walking down the street when you've got people whizzing by you, and it makes you jump a bit because you don't expect it."
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