A pensioner is able to see her youngest great-granddaughter's face clearly for the first time after becoming the first patient in Scotland to undergo a pioneering new corneal transplant.
Joyce Cook underwent the ground-breaking procedure, and she can now see colours, shapes, and pick out the tiny details on the faces of her eight grandchildren.
And that includes five-year-old Lily who she has never been able to see clearly due to her eye problems.
The 87-year-old volunteered to undergo a Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) - an operation where the innermost layer of the cornea is replaced.
Under the procedure, donor tissue is used to replace the damaged cornea, and it has a faster recovery time than traditional corneal transplants.
Mrs Cook, a retired nurse from Edinburgh, said the results had "completely changed" how she sees the world and has given her "more confidence" in life.
She said: "The results are fantastic, I can see everything so clearly now, everything is tack sharp. It's so good to be able to see colour so vividly again.
"Faces have become so much clearer, it's wonderful. I am now able to see my grandchildren's faces so much more vividly.
"My sight started getting bad about 10 years ago, but since the operation I'm now able to see my great granddaughter's face clearly.
"I won't have to worry about not being able to clearly see any more that come along either.
"There's been all sorts of benefits, my walking has improved as it gives me that much more confidence, and being able to see in 3D again.
"You don't appreciate it until you don't have it."
Mrs Cook underwent the surgery in June, and she said the change in her sight has enabled her to read books and newspapers again without the need for a reading tablet.
The DMEK technique is being pioneered by Dr Nainglatt Tint, a consultant cornea, cataract and refractive surgeon at the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion.
He said the new procedure can be performed with an incision less than 3mm and gives better recovery of vision as compared to the older forms of transplantation.
Dr Tint said there was also less chance of rejection by the body.
The procedure uses just one or no stitches at all so recovery times are much faster than more traditional methods and patients will begin to see the results within days.
The new method offers patients a faster recovery time and can be performed under a local anaesthetic.
The operation replaces only the innermost layer of the cornea, called the endothelium, which is only 1/50th of a millimetre thick.
Dr Tint said: "In the past we used to remove the whole thickness of the cornea which could be up to half a millimetre thick and we would stitch a new graft in place.
"This could take months and months to heal - even up to two years and the vision will take a long time to get back to normal.
"But the latest procedure, which we are now doing, replaces the cells and the thin membrane that they sit on.
"We take that and we inject it into the eye through a 3mm incision where it is then unscrolled into place.
"There is clear evidence that you get better vision with this method, and more importantly there is less chance of rejection, and there is now the question to introduce this procedure."
Dr Tint has now gone on to perform another four operations and the others are also making a good recovery and noticing positive results.
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