A former Big Brother star is preparing for eye surgery after being “irresponsible” and not wearing sunglasses during the summer months.
Laura Clare was diagnosed with pterygiums – raised, fleshy growths that develop and spread across the eyeball due to exposure to harmful UV rays.
She initially thought she had cancer after noticing the changes to her vision and eye appearance.
Shockingly, she puts this down to a lack of protective eyewear while basking in the sun – and is now speaking out to warn others of the dangers.
“I was really irresponsible in my twenties,” Laura, who is in her 30s and is based in the Gold Coast in Australia, told Need To Know.
“I didn’t have much fear of consequences of anything, and I sunbathed a lot.
“Not only did I sunbathe, but I also didn’t wear sunscreen or sunglasses – and I’ve now got sun damage.
“I’ve had to have moles biopsied on my face and I have this eye damage now with the pterygiums.
“I didn’t really know the extent of how this would affect me until they really started to feel uncomfortable and needing seeing eye glasses 24/7 – which I hate the look of – and not being able to wear contacts was something I didn’t foresee.
“The damage is not something that shows up at the time but it does show up later in life.
“That’s my biggest warning – you don’t think that you are getting the damage that you are until much later, and then it’s too late.”
Laura, who appeared on a 2007 season of Australia’s Big Brother, was diagnosed when she was just 26 years old.
She said: “Being a hypochondriac, I actually thought I had cancer.
“I went to an optometrist and they told me I had pterygiums, which was from sun damage.
“The reason I noticed them was because I felt like I had sand in my eyes and they were really red and inflamed.
“The biggest problem with having pterygiums is it continues to grow, and it grows over your eyes.
“The bigger it gets, the more painful it gets and the more easily irritated it is.
“It can be a big surgery if you let them grow over your eyes.”
Having opted to have surgery later this month rather than wait on a year-long wait list, Laura is forking out between $4,000-$5,000 per eye to rectify the issues.
She said: “There really isn’t any [other] treatment apart from surgery.
“It’s quite scary.
“It’s only a 30-minute procedure for each eye, but I’ve heard it’s really painful and takes 2-6 weeks recovery.
“Then you return and have the second eye done as you can’t get both done at the same time.
“The main reason I wanted to get the surgery is because I have really bad eyesight, and with the growths I can’t wear contacts lenses.
“I don’t have healthcare so I will be paying out of pocket between $4,000-$5,000 per eye.
“There’s a 3% chance of them returning after surgery, but hopefully they don’t.
“It’s a lifelong thing of making sure I take care of my eyes from here on out.”
While her native Australia has strong sun, Laura warns that this can “happen anywhere” and urges people to make better choices when it comes to eyewear.
She added: “My biggest warning to people is to protect your eyes from childhood through to adulthood, and make sure you use UV protection that is approved by the regulations in your country.
“There’s a real trend at the moment of having quite thin sunglasses, but they don’t protect the eye and the sun can still get in and cause damage.
“So wear the right glasses, don’t buy them online where you can’t see what the UV protection is.
“A lot of the dupes just don’t have the protection that you need.”
