The Traitors: Horsham model among new contestants on reality TV series

Livi Deane defied the odds after being diagnosed with a rare eye cancer – retinoblastoma – when she was just 12 years old.

After two and a half years of gruelling chemotherapy Livi went into remission but medics had to remove her eye, fitting her with a prosthetic.

And now Livi is facing a new challenge in the BBC nail-biting series in which a group of strangers play a game of detection, backstabbing and trust in the hope of winning up to £120,000.

"I’m so excited for the missions!” said 26-year-old Livi. “I’m a fighter, I've been through a lot in life, I had my eye removed at 14 and at the time I didn't cope with it very well.

"When I had my eye removed, I had to adjust to a whole way of living. At the age of 14 all my friends were experiencing being a teenager and growing into adulthood, and I was starting chemotherapy.

"I've always just got on with it, I've never dwelt on it, and I've adjusted to my new life. I think that comes with everything now, I never give up, I always push and I want to succeed.

"I've got a baby boy now, and I've never been away from him. He's 15 months old, so I wouldn't be going into The Traitors if it wasn't important to me, I'm doing it for him. I've got a few phobias and if I was faced with them, I would still take them on because I don't want to let the team down.”

The series, hosted by Claudia Winkleman, sees a group of strangers at a Scottish castle. Hidden among them are the Traitors whose job is to secretly murder their fellow players without getting caught.

It’s up to the others, the Faithful, to try to detect who the traitors are, and banish them from the game, before they become their next victim.

For the lucky ones who survive to the end, they have the chance of winning that life-changing cash. But if a Traitor remains undetected, they’ll take it all.

“My mum’s a fan and she thought I’d be really good on it,” said Livi. “It's something I've watched, and I absolutely love but not something I ever saw myself going on, because I never thought I'd have the opportunity. I thought I'll just apply for it, but I didn't take it too seriously until I got a bit further in the process.

“I used to think I'd be amazing as a Traitor, but I've thought about it and I'm actually an honest person. I think if I lie, nothing good will happen for me, so I always avoid lying. I do really want to be a Faithful and I think I'd be a good Faithful. I think I get on with everybody, I'm a good problem solver so I'd be able to help the team track down a Traitor.

"I've always sussed people out in my life and if somebody has lied to me, I've known straight away. I think I'm a good people reader.”

She added: "I won’t be getting involved in any dramas, I definitely won’t be a ringleader. If I suspect anybody, I will not be throwing their names out there because there's obviously a risk of being murdered and that's exactly what I don't want to happen.

"If I suspect a Traitor, I'd be sneaky and make friends with them and get on their good side, they’ll think that I'm naive and want to take me to the end, then when I get right to the end, I can let loose! I think when players suspect things or people and start telling everybody, they're murdered in the next few days.”

Although having her heart set on being a Faithful, Livi knows she could be picked to be a Traitor. “I'd have to hold it together. I would just think of my baby boy, and why I'm here.

"I wouldn't be obvious, and I think I'd be good in terms of going with the flow and not giving off that I'm a Traitor to anybody. I think it'd be a smooth ride for me until I get questions at the Round Table. When everybody's onto you it's a lot.

"You could either be so defensive or you could be too quiet, and people are going to suss you out either way. It’s so risky being a Traitor. I'm just not a liar so I feel like it'd be very difficult but if somebody told me to tell a lie to my sister today, and I had to go through with it for the rest of the week, I'd be able to do that.

"I've told lies in the past, very small, silly lies. It's just if I'm questioned that would throw me, but I’d just have to ride with it and keep a poker face.”

Livi says she’s adept at telling if people are lying. “I'm just a good solver; my mum has always said I should have been a Police Officer. I'm always watching crime documentaries; I want to solve some mysteries. I absolutely love it.”

She says that, if she won, she would “cry my eyes out. I'm such an emotional person – I cry at happy things because I just know how much it means to people.

"First thing I would do is take my family on holiday, we never all of us get together and have a nice break and I really want to do that.

"My sister's just had a baby so I'd take the children away, that'd be so nice. I definitely want to donate some money to the Childhood Eye Cancer Trust. They've done so much for me, they helped me when I lost my hair, they helped me get a wig.

"They've helped me with getting my perfect prosthetic eye which I'm so happy with. I've been so unhappy with previous prosthetic eyes and people wouldn't even notice now.

"I'm so grateful for them and I want to help the other children going through it ... it would mean everything for me to just give something back.”