A SHARP-EYED opthalmologist has struck for the second time - spotting potential serious illness while doing his job.

Akbar Badshah alerted Serene Jenkinson that there was something suspicious at the back of her eye when she visited John Exley optician in Otley Street, Skipton, suffering double vision.

The father of two from Queensbury, near Bradford, thought she'd had a minor stroke and telephoned a consultant at Airedale General Hospital straight away.

And his diagnosis turned out to be correct and following a scan the 80-year-old was found to have a blood clot on her brain.

"I had an MRI scan which showed the blood clot on the brain stem which had affected my eye sight," said Serene of Mill Lane, Bradley.

"If it wasn't for Akbar it could have been much worse. I owe him my life.

"I went to have my eyes tested because after having what I thought was Minieres attack which had left me with blurry vision and, having had double vision the previous week, I thought I would need stronger glasses."

Akbar, who has been an opthalmologist at John Exley for 14 years, said: "I'm humbled to have helped Serene.

"She came to see me with double vision. I was alerted by something I spotted around a muscle in the eye - one of the cranial nerves looked damage. I immediately got in touch with Airedale General Hospital."

Only last year Akbar spotted that another of his clients, Gavin Jolly, who had visited the optician with cloudy vision and was struggling to distinguish between colours.

It turned out that Gavin of Mayfield Close, Glusburn, a father of two, had idiopathic raised intra-cranial pressure, which was treated successfully.