Jennie Hurst, from Southampton, contracted acanthamoeba keratitis - a rare and painful infection caused by amoeba（变形虫） which naturally occurs in water.

 

The infection causes hypersensitivity to light and the 28-year-old said she was confined to a dark room for three months. She is now warning of the dangers of swimming or showering wearing contacts.

 

Ms Hurst underwent four operations, stays in hospital, and a treatment regime in which she had eye drops administered every half hour.

 

She said: "During that time I was literally¹ confined to my bedroom with blackout blinds at the window. The only thing I could do was to listen to the radio.

 

"One evening, I was so desperate to look out of window to get a glimpse of the outside world that I opened my curtains in the middle of the night.

 

"As soon as I did this the moon shone in my eyes and it really hurt. I didn't do that again in a hurry."

 

Ms Hurst said she has been left with no vision in her left eye and the damage to her cornea could be permanent.

 

The environmental coordinator², who had been wearing contact lenses for five years, went swimming at a hotel while on a residential³ training course with work.

 

"The irony⁴ is that I don't even like swimming - I only did a few laps," she said.

 

"My consultants⁵ were quite surprised that I had gone swimming and probably thought that I had been a bit lazy whereas I wasn't aware of the problem at all - it didn't even enter my brain to take them out.

 

"I felt guilty that I had let it happen when actually I could have just taken my contacts out and saved everyone a lot of time and bother and myself a lot of pain.

 

"I have always been so careful with my contact lenses. I always remove them when sleeping and always use contact lens solution to wash them."

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