The 60-year-old, who clinched a £300,000 book deal, had feared she could go blind and her writing career would be over after being diagnosed with cataracts in 2004.

But she lived in denial because she was too terrified to undergo treatment.

When her eyesight got so bad it stopped her writing, Sheila, from Burnmoor, was spurred into action and took the brave steps towards surgery.

She said: "It is absolutely brilliant. I can see for miles.

"Before I couldn't see anything. It was horrendous and now I've got my life back."

The mother-of-four had the cataract removed from her right eye six weeks ago and met the Echo just minutes before the operation on her left.

Speaking in the waiting room at Sunderland Eye Infirmary, she said: "I am feeling a little bit nervous today but not as bad as I was last time. I was absolutely terrified. This time I know what's going to happen.

"The worst bit is putting a needle in my eye, and that's over in a few seconds."

Sheila is diabetic, so she has regular eye checks and the problem was spotted quickly, but when consultants told her she needed surgery to remove the cataracts she refused.

Her eyesight deteriorated, slowly at first, and then sharply, blurring out details and forcing her to live her life through a thick smoky fog.

A grandma-of-eight she said: "My greatest fear was that I might lose my sight and I wouldn't be able to write any more. If I couldn't write I would go crazy.

"It got so bad I really couldn't see anything at all and I knew I had
to do something."

Sunderland Eye Infirmary is one of the leading specialist hospitals in the country, treating 7,000 cataract patients a year.

Dianne Hurcombe, head of department at the cataract treatment centre, said: "The operation is much more simple than it used to be and we only make a tiny incision, which heals very quickly.

"Getting people here in the first place is the difficult part. Once they are here it only takes about 10 minutes for surgeons to take the cataract out."

Sheila emerged from the theatre wearing a wide smile and her left eye taped shut. "I feel champion", she said.

The nurse said her sight would start to return in a couple of hours and Sheila vowed she would be back at her computer putting the finishing touches on her latest book, The Road to Hell.