Why did you go into optometry?

Both my dad and my aunt were optometrists, but throughout school I aspired to be a medic. I spent too much time kicking a ball around at school and not enough time revising, so my plan was to study optometry as a route into medicine. I really enjoyed the optometry course in Glasgow and got a first-class degree, so it made sense to complete a pre-reg. I then decided to do a PhD in the labs in parallel with setting up a hospital optometry department in Belfast. I soon realised that I loved what I did and decided to park the med school idea – for now at least!