'Lights were flickering, diagnosis was stab in heart and I'm facing death'

'Lights were flickering, diagnosis was stab in heart and I'm facing death' Lara Vivo started to have headaches as well A woman was diagnosed with a rare eye cancer after complaining to confused colleagues that the office lights were 'flickering'. Lara Vivo, 41, started to notice 'flickering lights' in work meetings, which gave her headaches around March 2019, despite colleagues saying the lights were working fine. She put it down to stress, but ended up going for an eye test as she thought she needed glasses. Instead, Lara was referred straight to an emergency eye unit in a hospital, where further tests led to a doctor diagnosing her with eye cancer - uveal melanoma. She flew from her home in Bournemouth to see a highly-recommended private specialist eye doctor in Barcelona, who found a 1cm tumour on her right eye and it had caused her retina to detach, causing the flashing lights and headaches. Lara, who is originally from Valencia, Spain, underwent three surgeries costing £30,000 in Barcelona, aiming to destroy the tumour and prevent the spread of cancer, although it left her with just 10% vision in that eye. For the following seven years, she had regular checks and was believed to be cancer-free - until January this year, when doctors found the cancer from her eye had metastasised in her liver. At this point the cancer was deemed incurable and NHS doctors told Lara and her partner, Roy Bettencourt, 61, that there was no NHS-funded treatment available for her. Lara is now fundraising for £120,000 of private chemosaturation therapy - a targeted chemotherapy delivered by needle directly into the liver - which is not available on the NHS due to limited research and it not being considered cost-effective. Lara, a supermarket store assistant, told Talk to the Press: "I had this funny vision at work, but I couldn't explain it, it just didn't feel right. Everyone else said the lights hadn't bothered them at all. "I went for this eye test and I was shocked to be referred straight to the emergency eye unit. Even then, I never thought it was serious - I just thought I needed glasses. "So when the consultant told me it was cancer, it was like a stab in the heart. I had three operations over six months, where I had to move back to Spain and live with my family, leaving behind my partner and dog. "After that I thought it wasn't coming back and even at the start of this year my oncologist told me I was past the point of it returning. Then they found cancer in my liver. Now this is life or death for me, if I don't do anything this will kill me. But I'm not giving up, I want to live." Lara's vision issues first started in early 2019, although she struggled to pinpoint the exact issues beyond "flickering lighting". She said: "I asked my colleagues 'did that lighting bother you?' after the meeting. But they said it didn't. Then I was scrolling through Facebook and it showed me an advert for a free eye test, so I went, thinking I must need glasses." But the optician referred her straight to the emergency eye unit at Royal Bournemouth Hospital instead. Soon she had been diagnosed by a consultant with uveal melanoma, a rare malignant cancer, found in the eye's uvea - the middle layer of tissue in the wall of the eyeball. She said: "I remember saying 'hold on a minute, did you say cancer?' I don't remember much else. I came out of the waiting room and burst into tears to my partner." Despite her impression that 'melanoma' would be related to skin, Lara later learned it had been caused by a random cell mutation at the back of her eye. Lara visited a doctor in Barcelona who confirmed the diagnosis and agreed to operate. The operation comprised three separate surgeries over six months to reattach the retina, remove half the tumour and apply a radioactive plaque to it, which aimed to attack the remaining cancer, and which would later be removed. The three surgeries left her with just 10% vision in that eye, but with the hope that it had got rid of the cancer once and for all. She returned to the UK and had regular check-ups, but remained cancer-free. Seven years on, Lara felt more reassured and she and Roy, a firefighter, had discussed getting married and starting a family. But in January, a scheduled MRI scan revealed the cancer had metastasised in the liver. She said: "I had originally been told I was a high risk for metastases in the liver, but by now I thought maybe I was fine. But as of March 2026, I am considered stage four terminal." Because of the rarity of uveal melanoma, the NHS' Clinical Commissioning Policy of 2016 for chemosaturation says there isn't enough evidence of success to support making the procedure available on the NHS. It reads: "No studies were identified of high quality to draw firm conclusions on the safety of the procedure in patients with liver metastasis from ocular melanoma. No cost-effectiveness studies were identified to comment on the cost-effectiveness of this procedure." But Lara said it was her only hope and is fundraising via GoFundMe to cover the cost of a round of three £40,000-a-go treatments at Southampton General Hospital. She said: "I've been given a grim diagnosis, but I've been researching and I'm not giving up, I want to live. These seven years it's just been appointments, cancer, hospitals. We had planned to get married and maybe have children. "It will never happen now. It's ruined my life. "I don't look ill, but I'm fighting for my life now. And this cancer is persistent, but I'm not giving up. If you're sensing something is wrong with your eye, get it checked."