I read this amazing article, about a false eye that I thought I would share with you. It was all about Teddie Stroud, a 3 years old boy who last year he was diagnosed with a rare and deadly form of eye cancer. This led to his right eye being removed in March.

Thanks to medical advances, he has now got a false eye which look almost real, with precise colour-matching, accurate shaping and some eye movement possible. Modern surgery means that, if possible, the tear glands are not removed, so people with a false eye can still cry.

Mr Ashwin Reddy, consultant paediatric ophthalmologist at Barts, who performed Teddie’s operation, explained that eye implants today are made of a bone-like material called hydroxyapatite. The tissues around the eye and the blood vessels then grow into this. The implant is stitched between the muscles at the back of the socket so that the patient can move their ‘eye’

Teddie can still do all the same things as other children his age, including swimming. The only thing he should avoid is contact sports.

It is nice to hear a medical good news story, which I why I thought I would share it with you, even though I would admit that it doesn’t really have much to do with travel. Nice to think though that medical advances like these make it a lot easier for people with medical conditions to enjoy going on holidays, and doing whatever activities they want to do when they are there…