When Coalville resident, Natalie Marriott visited Specsavers for a routine sight test, her family never imagined it would result in emergency surgery to remove a satsuma-sized brain tumour.

Natalie, 40, has always been an advocate of having regular eye examinations.

So, when she was reminded that her appointment was due in March of this year, Natalie promptly made an appointment and visited her local store in the Belvoir Shopping Centre.

At the store, Natalie was seen by graduate optometrist Ammara Seedat who carried out a thorough eye examination.

"Natalie mentioned that she'd been experiencing headaches over the last couple of weeks," comments Ammara.

"Although headaches can be caused by a variety of things, it's important to get them checked out if they don't subside.

"After looking at the back of her eyes, the test revealed her optic nerves, which connects the eyes to the brain, were swollen."

Natalie also opted to have an OCT (optical coherence tomography) scan, which allows optometrists to look deeper into eyes - giving a deeper analysis of the underlying structures.

Ammara continues: "The images collected from the OCT scan confirmed that Natalie's nerves were enlarged and I suspected that she could be suffering from papilloedema, a sign of pressure build-up in or around the brain, which can be life-threatening."

Explaining what she believed to Natalie, Ammara immediately referred her to hospital to get the diagnosis confirmed.

Relaying the severity of the situation to her husband, Paul, they both travelled to the eye clinic at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Here, Natalie underwent various tests and was diagnosed with a tumour, which was thought to be the cause of the papilloedema.

"Natalie went for her sight test in the morning, and by the end of the day we'd received the horrific news that she had a brain tumour,' said Paul.

"From waking up that day with little to worry about, our world had been turned upside down."

Less than a week later, Natalie underwent emergency surgery to successfully remove the satsuma-sized tumour, which turned out to be non-cancerous.

"As you can imagine, going from a routine eye examination to a tumour is a big shock," continues Paul.

"Although Natalie faces a long road to recovery, if she hadn't booked an appointment, who knows what would have happened.

"Before we were put in this situation, I naively thought an eye examination was solely for those struggling to read books or road signs, but I never fully appreciated that they could literally save the life of a loved one.

"Both my wife and I will be eternally grateful to Ammara and the whole team at Specsavers for their professionalism and addressing a concern with the importance it clearly deserved."

Shailan Ruparelia, Specsavers Coalville store director, says: "Natalie's story demonstrates just how important routine sight testing is."

And of course, if you notice any changes in your vision or start experiencing any sudden onset symptoms that don't subside, it's vital you see an optician - the sooner these issues are identified the better, as they're often easier to treat.

'We're really pleased we were able to help Natalie get the care she needed and we wish her all the best in recovery.'

In line with NHS recommendations, Specsavers colleagues use personal protective equipment (PPE) throughout the stores, wear face masks and other PPE during tests, and all testing equipment and frames are thoroughly sanitised before and after each use.

All appointments need to be made in advance and there are also be restrictions on the number of customers allowed in store at any one time, strict social distancing rules and, where possible, card instead of cash payments.