Glaucoma Awareness

Debate between Brian Leishman and Shockat Adam

Wednesday 9th July 2025 Westminster Hall

[Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Pritchard. I extend my thanks to the hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) for securing this important debate. When the time comes, I will welcome an intervention from him to help me pronounce the name of the eye operation that I had, because I can never say it.

I often say that all politics is personal, and that is incredibly apt for me in this debate, because 17 years ago, when I was 25, I was diagnosed with glaucoma. Pre-diagnosis, my knowledge of the condition extended to Edgar Davids, the Dutch footballer who wore what looked like safety goggles when playing because he had glaucoma and could not wear contact lenses.

Unlike many people’s glaucoma stories, mine is a very fortunate one. Before coming to this place, I was a golf professional. At the time, I was giving lessons to an optician, who offered to gift me a pair of glasses as thanks—I know that sounds a familiar story for a Labour politician, but I move on. He did some tests, including for glaucoma, and commented that my eye pressure was extremely high, in the mid-30s. Within the hour, I was in the ophthalmology clinic at Perth royal infirmary and was diagnosed with glaucoma.

Dr Cobb, who became my consultant, saw me at Perth royal that afternoon and has been absolutely incredible ever since. She explained to me that I was very lucky: if I had continued undiagnosed, I would probably have had another decade or so of eyesight and then would have woken up one day, in my mid-30s, unable to see. There would have been nothing she could have done for me; I would have been blind. The glaucoma was totally symptomless, and it is irreversible—those are the real dangers.

[Shockat Adam]

I always recall a patient of mine who was diagnosed with glaucoma at a very late stage. She came into the practice with a wad of cash and said, “Give me the best glasses and lenses you have, so I can see again.” Unfortunately she had glaucoma, and the vision was lost. There was nothing that money could buy.

[Brian Leishman]

That is not the first time I have heard that. I have another optician friend, who said that that has been a regular occurrence in his career. Someone may not know that they have glaucoma until it is too late.

I was prescribed eye drops. I went through a few options, with not much success, until I ended up on three different drops: bimatoprost, brinzolamide and brimonidine. All three go in my left eye at bedtime and then again the next morning, and then just brimonidine in my right eye at bedtime and again the next morning.

My right eye needs only one set of drops because it has been operated on. It has had a trabeculectomy—I hope that pronunciation was close enough. The operation was needed to save the eyesight in my right eye. It was an operation under general anaesthetic to make an incision in my eyeball to allow pressure to disperse and not attack my optic nerve. After an overnight stay in hospital, I wore an eye patch for a week, with no bending over for a fortnight and four weeks off work. I had a good report from Dr Cobb, and have had eye drops twice a day and twice-yearly check-ups at hospitals since. I really am lucky.

As well as my thanks to my consultant, I want to record my appreciation for my optician, Eddie Russell of Norman Salmoni, who provides regular check-ups between hospital visits, and for the outstanding care that his practice provides.

All that goes to show that the NHS really is our greatest invention. Personally, I reject the language of the NHS being broken. It is not broken; it is underfunded. The staff deserve more. They deserve the very best.

I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to get tested. Testing could be the difference between retaining one’s eyesight and not. I thank hon. Members for permitting me to share a bit about my ongoing glaucoma journey. Glaucoma cannot ever be cured, but we can try to manage the decline somewhat.

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Debate between Brian Leishman and Shockat Adam

Wednesday 12th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Brian Leishman]

I thank my hon. Friend; I wholeheartedly agree. Again, that is something that I will turn to later in my contribution, when we look at a variety of actions that the UK Government could undertake.

I also ask the Minister to defend the words, and lack of action, from our Government, which have enabled the Israeli blockades to continue—blockades that stopped lifesaving aid, food, water and medicine from reaching besieged Palestinians who were starving and in the most dire need.

Historical context is vital because the persecution Palestinians suffer is not recent. That treatment did not start in October 2023. For Palestinians, the Nakba began many decades ago. From the mass dispossession of the Palestinian people in 1947 and 1948 to the present day, ethnic cleansing has been a constant.

The seizure of land and homes, the forced displacement, the destruction of civic, educational, cultural and religious infrastructure, which are all protected by international conventions and treaties, to which this country is a committed signatory, are all examples of settler colonialism and Israeli Government-authorised apartheid, that sees removal of the local population through ethnic cleansing. For decades, the international community has looked away and ignored the suffering of the Palestinian people.

I put it to the Government, through the Minister, that the time for the UK to show international and moral leadership is long overdue, especially regarding Palestine. Our nation’s role as the former colonial power in Palestine, issuing and implementing the Balfour declaration of 1917, presiding over the dispossession and disfranchisement of the Palestinian people, has imposed an historical debt, which continues to grow the longer we refuse to stand up for the inalienable rights of Palestinians.

Will the Minister commit the UK Government to undertaking a thorough review of their diplomatic, political, trade, economic and military relations with Israel, to identify any aspects that assist and empower Israel’s illegal occupation, and to stop those aspects? Will the UK Government suspend trade privileges, agreements and negotiations with Israel, pending the outcome of that thorough review?

[Shockat Adam (Leicester South) (Ind)]

I thank the hon. Member for securing this important debate. He is making a passionate speech about the situation in Gaza. One of the biggest arguments made against the abolition of slavery was the financial cost to our country, so does he agree that the Foreign Secretary’s statement that we will not have economic sanctions against Israel because we have a £6.1 billion trade deal is abhorrent, and that we should reverse that statement as soon as possible?

[Brian Leishman]

I thank the hon. Member for his contribution. My answer is quite simply yes, I agree. That was an appalling statement. I would like to think that our country is frankly better than putting a pound and pence figure on the cost of a humanitarian disaster and genocide.

I put this to the Minister. Will the UK Government ban the importation of goods from illegal Israeli settlements, which facilitate and give credibility to their existence? Banning the importation of goods from Israel’s illegal settlements brings into line our commitment to international law and human rights. The ICJ is clear that all states have an obligation not to recognise, aid or assist in maintaining the illegal situation of occupation, and to stop providing assistance that sustains occupation and to ensure compliance with international law, through diplomatic and economic measures.

In conclusion, the UK Government have a very simple choice to make. Do we side with an apartheid state that has seized territory; displaced and contained people into an open-air prison; eradicated communities and centuries of culture; ethnically cleansed a people and committed genocide? Or do we join the call that many in the international community have already made for full compliance with international law, recognition of the state of Palestine and justice for its indomitable people?