Vision on: Lynsey Philpott can continue firefighting following her revolutionary eye surgery

Now, after becoming the first NHS patient to undergo revolutionary new eye treatment, Lynsey has been given perfect vision for the rest of her life and last month resumed work at her fire station in Rawdon, Yorkshire.

A cataract is a clouding of the normally clear lens inside the eye, causing blurry vision. They form when protein in the lens clumps together, producing a frosted effect.

About 300,000 cataract operations are carried out every year in the UK. The majority are due to the natural ageing process, usually in those over 65.

But in Lynsey's case the condition was hereditary  -  both her father and paternal grandmother have cataracts. Only 200 children a year are born with congenital cataracts and of these, only a fifth have a family history of the condition.

'When I went to see James Ball, the ophthalmic surgeon at St James's Hospital in Leeds, I didn't really have a clue what cataracts were other than it was something that affected the elderly. I remember sitting in the waiting room thinking, ''Hang on a minute, I'm a spring chicken, what am I doing here?"'

Lynsey, who lives with her daughter Madison, five, in Otley, near Leeds, admits: 'I knew my dad, who is 50, had worn glasses for the past 20 years but it wasn't until I told him I'd got cataracts that he admitted he'd had them since he was in his mid-30s.'

Glasses can help cataract sufferers but eventually surgery is essential to remove the cloudy lens and replace it with a new one. Traditional treatment still leaves the patient needing reading glasses.

'It was incredibly unusual to perform cataract surgery on somebody in their 20s,' says Mr Ball.

'We think Lynsey probably had these cataracts from birth in a very mild form and for some reason there was a sudden onset of blurred vision over a matter of months in her late 20s.'

Anyone who develops cataracts is eligible to have lens-replacement surgery on the NHS and would normally be fitted with standard monofocal lenses.

Mr Ball explains: 'With standard cataract surgery we could have given Lynsey good distance vision but she needs to see up close when she's working rather than fumbling around for glasses. It would have been a nightmare for her to do her job.'

Mr Ball urged her GP to request her Primary Care Trust to fund a new-generation lens, the LENTIS Mplus premium MIOL, which is still only available privately having come on the market last year. It has been proven to give patients perfect 20/20 vision.

The lenses and surgical costs would have been £3,000 per eye but distributors Topcon, hearing about Lynsey's plight, agreed to donate them. In September she underwent surgery to remove the cataract on her left eye and have the new lens inserted. Two weeks later she had the same operation on her right eye.

The procedure involved making an incision at the edge of the cornea and inserting the lens. Terrified at the thought of the operation, Lynsey was given a general anaesthetic.

Mr Ball says: 'Although the surgery is straightforward, she may have had side effects afterwards, such as dry eyes.'

Within hours of the operation Lynsey was back home armed with anti-inflammatory eye drops and a week-long course of antibiotics.

She also had to wear an eye patch for the first four days to ensure she did not knock her eye.

'When I woke up, there was no pain, just a bit of irritation as if I'd got something in my eye,' says Lynsey. 'When I took the eye patch off, the light was dazzling, but within an hour everything settled down and the contrast between my newly restored vision and the remaining cataract was amazing.'

Lynsey had to take a month off work to let her eyes recover but is now back full-time.

'After both surgeries the change was unbelievable  -  it was like having my eyes open for the first time,' she says. 'If it hadn't been for the surgery, my career would have been in jeopardy. I just feel the luckiest woman in Britain that this type of technology is around.'