The actress Phyllida Law has decided to spread awareness on glaucoma as she herself has been living with this disease for long.

Mother of the actresses Emma and Sophie Thompson, and widow of Eric Thompson lives in north London and she greeted the news with composure when she came to know about her disease. She knows that it is a hereditary form of illness which makes her worry about her daughters as her mother too suffered from it.

This disease occurs when pressure of fluid inside the eyes increases causing damage to the optic nerve and loss of vision.

Recalling her early days with her mother, she said, “I had to be careful when I was helping her. If I tidied up, I had to replace items exactly where they had been left so she could find them – even if the locations seemed illogical to me”.

Tristan Reuser, consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust explained that a considerable risk was associated with it if a parent or sibling had this disease. He said that there was no cure available of this disease but only thing which could be done was to reduce the eye pressure with the help of eye drops. He also mentioned using laser treatment in some cases to drain away the fluid through small holes.