UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hello all

I am new to the page and just signed up.

REASON being that for the best part of 10 years i have seen the price of my gas permeable lenses go from a manageable £50 to over £300 for a pair.

I am a very active sportsman playing anything from cricket to rugby to swimming and i am seeing my motivation to participate in sport decrease to the point where i am thinking about giving up all together. The lenses come out at any slight contact around my eyes and the price of cleaning solution, comfort solution and saline is rinsing me.

Can anyone point me in the right direction for may be insurance or grant?
I have heard about all the procedure i can have but at the moment my eye sight with lenses is fantastic its just a ball ache managing them every day and of course if i loose one or both of them.

thanks

Hello and welcome!
Most of us get our contact lenses through a hospital eye clinic. That way, we get them at the NHS rate of around £53 per lens, so quite a bit cheaper than the commercial rate you are paying. You can ask your GP to refer you to a corneal clinic. If the hospital has its own contact lens department (which most of the hospitals in the larger cities do) then you'll be able to get your lenses direct from the hospital. Or the hospital might contract out its contact lens provision to an optometrist who specialises in KC in the area. They would then give you a voucher with your prescription to enable you to get the lenses at the NHS rate.
Another thing to consider is whether you'd do better with a different type of lens which would work better for all your sports activities. Larger diameter lenses would be less likely to drop out - those could be larger diameter rgps, something like the special soft lenses for KC (Kerasoft and others) hybrid lenses (rigid centre and soft skirt) or scleral lenses which cover the whole of the eye and can't fall out! A hospital eye clinic would be more likely to have a wider range of lenses and could advise on whether any of these would work better for you.
Anne