Seeing Double

Before I met London Vision Clinic patients Margaret Winstanley and Kath Hooley – I thought that it was only the Queen who spoke in terms of “we” as opposed to “me” or “I”.

For example, the famous Queen Victoria quote: “We are not amused”; or – more relevantly –”We began wearing glasses at the age of …”. Of course our Queen has the added option of choosing the “one” style as in: “One began wearing glasses in public to read one’s speech at the state opening of parliament”.

But I digress.

It is not that Margaret and Kath are being in any way snooty when either one of them might refer in conversation to “we” – even when apart. It is that they feel comfortable speaking for each other – even when the other isn’t around.

It is an endearing trait and one that can only be adopted by a person who is exceptionally close to someone else. In fact it is a speech style which only sits comfortably with identical twins … like Margaret and Kath.

The twin sisters live a few miles from each other outside Sheffield in the north of England and, as well as looking remarkably similar, they are also clearly close in many other ways … including not wanting to be tied down by all the inconvenience of reading glasses.

“Because we started from a position of being short-sighted, the need for reading glasses was going to take longer than with other people”, Margaret told me.

Despite both sisters getting along well with their contact lenses they had watched many of their friends juggling specs and struggling to read menus and, they were not looking forward to the day when it would happen to them.  And neither had any idea that there might be an alternative… that is until Margaret, a financial adviser, decided to work from home one day.

“It was very strange”, she recalls. “I never watch day time television; but had put it on for the news when suddenly something caught my attention. “This morning” was on and when I heard Phillip Schofield talking about his frustrations with his eye sight, I became intrigued”

After investigating the London Vision Clinic further, speaking to a patient adviser and learning more about the blended vision technique, Margaret was soon convinced that she wanted to have the procedure and booked an appointment for herself and Kath.

Having reached her decision, but never having even broached the subject of Laser Eye Surgery before, she phoned her sister Kath and announced: “We’re going to London and we’re going to have Laser Eye Surgery!”