- Hannah lost her right eye after her sunglasses shattered during a car accident, leaving her with severe facial injuries and requiring multiple surgeries
- Struggling with her appearance, Hannah found strength through therapy and her fiancé James’ unwavering support, proudly walking down the aisle without her eye patch just three months later
- After holding a funeral for her eye, Hannah is embracing her new life and plans to launch a shatter-proof sunglasses brand to help protect others
Here Hannah Oliver, 27, tells her story in her own words
Cruising down the busy road with my dog Winston in the car, it was a bright August day.
I’d been visiting my parents, Flora and Leon, and was looking forward to getting home to see my fiancé, James, then 29.
Wearing sunnies to protect against the sun’s glare, I was just two minutes from his house when a driver suddenly merged in front of me and slammed on their brakes.
I was only travelling at around 40 km/h, but with no time to react, I smashed into the back of them and my airbag deployed.
Pain instantly tore through the right side of my face.
Peering in the rear-vision mirror, I could see my face was covered in blood and my right eyelid was hanging off.
I was terrified.
The impact had shattered the lens of my sunglasses and the fragments had pierced my eye.
Thankfully, a kind man who’d witnessed the accident rushed to my aid.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked, offering to call someone.
In a state of shock, the only number I could remember was Mum’s.
The man phoned her, then an ambulance, while Mum called James.
By the time he arrived, I was throwing up from the pain.
‘You’re going to be okay,’ James soothed.
Miraculously, there was a vet across the road who made sure Winston wasn’t hurt and looked after him while I was rushed to hospital by ambulance.
There, X-rays revealed the entire right side of my face was fractured, my sinus cavity had caved in and my right eye had deflated like a balloon.
But the news got worse.
‘I’m afraid we won’t be able to save your eye,’ a doctor gently explained.
Devastated, I tried to stay strong as I relayed the news to my worried parents a few hours later.
Growing up, I’d always struggled with self-confidence, but the one thing I’d loved was my blue eyes, which people regularly complimented.
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I can’t believe this is happening, I thought.
Doctors were concerned about the lens fragments entering my brain so, that night, I was transferred to a trauma hospital.
Special doctors were flown in to remove the fragments and repair my upper eyelid.
During the operation the next day, my eyeball was removed and the lid sewn shut to assist with healing.
James and I had been looking forward to our wedding in November, but now I had doubts.
‘Life is going to be different now. If you don’t want to be with me, I’ll understand,’ I told him.
‘How I feel about you hasn’t changed. I love you,’ James insisted.
Swollen and sore, I was allowed to go home the following day. But adjusting to life with one eye was challenging.
With no depth perception, navigating the stairs was tricky.
I kept bumping into things and Winston’s dog food ended up all over the floor instead of in his bowl.
READ MORE REAL LIFE: ‘My famous chicken soup left me blind in one eye’
But I laughed it off.
Still, it felt like it was just a bad dream.
In October, the sutures were removed and I was fitted with a conformer – a plastic lens to maintain the shape of the eye socket until a prosthesis is fitted.
With my eyelid now open there was no denying the truth – my eye was gone.
You look like a freak! I told myself, staring in the mirror.
Slumping to the bathroom floor, I sobbed in James’ arms.
It was the darkest time of my life.
I went from being a bubbly and happy bride-to-be to hating myself and hiding behind an eye patch so I didn’t alarm anyone.
But James told me every day that I was beautiful.
Eventually, I realised something had to change.
I have to learn to love myself again, I realised.
With the help of a therapist, I began to accept what had happened.
On our big day, three months after the accident, I ditched my eye patch.
I wore my hair up instead of draped over my face and walked down the aisle with pride.
‘You look beautiful,’ James beamed. And I felt it.
In May this year, nine months after the accident, I held a funeral for my eye as a form of closure.
Returning to the accident site, I said goodbye to the Hannah who’d jumped into her car that morning.
‘I loved who I was back then, but I love the new me even more,’ I whispered.
Recording the moment, I posted it to my TikTok account and was shocked when it was viewed more than one million times.
You inspire us! someone commented. You’re still gorgeous, wrote another.
I’ve now had six surgeries to prepare my eye socket for the prosthesis I’ll be getting later this year.
Three months later in November, I launched my own brand of shatter-proof sunglasses, Blue Eye Sunglasses, to save others going through the pain I experienced.
I may have lost my eye, but I’ve gained so much.
I’ve found strength and resilience I didn’t know I had, and a social media platform that allows me to support others going through challenges.
But best of all, I’ve learned that beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.
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