A student who feels like she is constantly 'being stabbed in the stomach with a knife' is battling a rare illness that causes her arteries to crush each other.
Evita Gamber, 22, who lives in Oval, south London, visited A&E four times over the summer of 2016, but was told she had constipation or to take painkillers.
After researching herself, Miss Gamber was eventually diagnosed with variations of vascular compression syndrome in November 2017.
She went through an eight hour operation, followed by two more, which unfortunately didn't relieve her pain and left her with a huge scar on her stomach.
Leaving her degree at University College London behind, Miss Gamber is desperately awaiting more surgery.
But her life has been turned around by her dog, nine-month-old Bo, who has comforted her through her darkest times.
Evita Gamber, 22, who lives in Oval, south London, visited A&E four times over the summer of 2016, but was told she had constipation or to take painkillers. Pictured, in hospital
After researching herself, Miss Gamber was eventually diagnosed with variations of vascular compression syndrome in November 2017. Pictured, with her mother Anette, 47
Miss Gamber's life has been turned around by her dog, nine-month-old Bo, who has comforted her through her darkest times with pain that feels like 'being stabbed with a knife'
When Miss Gamber first moved to London to study in September 2015, she was planning to spend her three years at university in the hopes of one day becoming an quantum physicist.
A mysterious and persistent pain in her abdomen developed the following summer but she initially thought it could just be indigestion.
She said: 'I had never had any kind of illness before. And so I didn't go to the doctors about it for some time, even though the pain was quite severe, because I just thought, 'I'm not the kind of person who ever really gets ill".'
When a week of pain was compounded by nausea, she finally saw her doctor, who could not find anything obvious wrong.
As the weeks wore on, the pain continued - becoming so extreme that in November she took herself to A&E in London four times.
But she was told by medical experts that there was nothing overtly the matter with her and that she should just take pain killers.
By Christmas, her weight had also dropped slightly, from 52kg to 48kg (8st 2lb to 7st 6lb), as eating made the pain worse.
Miss Gamber, who had been a marathon runner before becoming ill, said: 'Everything was starting to get very difficult for me as I was in constant pain.
'Then on Christmas Day I experienced another heavy attack of stomach cramps along with pain in my chest, which made me unable to move.
'I went to my local hospital in Germany, where I
