Coronation Street star opens up on huge life changes after horror health battle

Coronation Street star Lisa George was left partially blind last year (Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

Coronation Street star Lisa George has opened up about how she has adapted her life following her major health battle.

Last November, the Beth Sunderland star suffered an injury to her right eye which left her with partial blindness. She was later diagnosed with NAAION – Non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy after suffering from shooting pains across her forehead and blurred vision a week after the incident.

On Thursday (November 6), the soap siren made an appearance on BBC Morning Live where she discussed how the health complications have changed her life.

Speaking with Helen Skelton and Gethin Jones, she confessed that her partial blindness was one of the main reasons she decided to leave the ITV soap after the factory worker for almost a decade.

When she was asked how she has dealt with the life-changing injury, the actress revealed that she had slipped into a brief depression.

The star left the ITV soap due to her life-changing complications (Image: ITV)

She confessed: “I was quite depressed actually, it really shocked me. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to be blind in one eye. But then I thought, ‘Do you know what? I just get on with it because what other choices do I have?’

“I had to have my scripts made bigger for me and my computer screen, someone’s made the letters bigger for me. I need to be more aware looking down because I can trip over things so easily. I mean I walk into things in my own house that’s been there nine years ago, like, ‘Who put that cupboard there?’”

The star admitted that at first she wasn’t worried about the injury, because she was only left a little bloodshot with no immediate damage.

Lisa explained: “I was in the garden with my dad and he was cutting all my trees down and lowering the branches with a rope, and I thought I’d be helpful.

At first, she didn't think her injury was a big deal (Image: BBC )

“So, I threw the rope back at him but it had a big knot at the end and it came back and bashed me in the eye, which was really hard and it really hurt.

“At first, I thought, ‘Oh no, I’m fine’ it was just a bit bloodshot and I’d gone to the hospital and they said, ‘Your vision’s fine, absolutely fine. There’s no loss’.”

It wasn’t until one week later that she started to experience more worrying symptoms that forced her to return to hospital. She went on: “But then a week later, I was getting shooting pains down the side of my head and across my forehead.

“I had nausea and then this showery curtain flickering happens and my eye was really unstable. I basically lost partial vision in this eye and I ended up at Moorfields [Eye Hospital] for a neuro-ophthalmologist who eventually diagnosed it last November.”