Lara Vivo has spoken out about her stage four cancer diagnosis after first noticing “flickering lights” during work meetings.
Vivo, 41, from Bournemouth, UK, began experiencing unusual vision during work meetings in March 2019, when she started seeing flashing lights that left her with headaches. When colleagues said they hadn’t noticed anything unusual with the office lighting, she initially put it down to stress.
After spotting an advert for a free eye test, Vivo decided to get her eyes checked, assuming she might simply need glasses. Instead, the optician immediately referred her to an emergency eye unit, where she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer affecting the middle layer of tissue in the eye.
“I remember saying ‘hold on a minute, did you say cancer?’ I don’t remember much else,” she admitted in an interview.
“I came out the waiting room and burst into tears to my partner.”
Vivo underwent three operations over six months, during which she moved to Spain to stay with family.
“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,” she said.
But the cancer returned. “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,” she shared.
She added: “As of March 2026, I am considered stage four terminal.”
Doctors told Vivo there is no NHS-funded treatment available to her, leaving her fundraising for £120,000 to pay for chemosaturation therapy, a treatment which involves delivering targeted chemotherapy directly into the liver. She hopes to undergo three rounds of the specialist treatment at Southampton General Hospital, which cost £40,000 each, and has launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise the money.
“I’ve been given a grim diagnosis but I’ve been researching and I’m not giving up, I want to live,” she said.
Despite the devastating diagnosis, Vivo says she is determined to keep fighting.
“I don’t look ill, but I’m fighting for my life now. And this cancer is persistent, but I’m not giving up,” she continued.
In the viral moment that first drew attention to her story, Vivo’s seemingly minor complaint about flickering office lights during routine work meetings in 2019 led to a diagnosis that would upend her life. What she and her colleagues initially dismissed as a lighting issue or stress-related symptom was actually a tumor on her right eye causing the visual disturbances, a revelation that came only after she took advantage of a free eye test advertisement.
Vivo urged others to take similar symptoms seriously: “If you’re sensing something is wrong with your eye, get it checked.”
Vivo is continuing to fundraise for her chemosaturation therapy at Southampton General Hospital.