In the ever-revolving world of actuality TV, it’s uncommon for a character to stay a lot cherished over time.
Reggie Bird, who gained Big Brother Australia in each 2003 and 2022, is a kind of folks.
Since her preliminary victory on the present 20 years in the past, Reggie, now 49, acquired much more assist when her well being points made headlines.
One yr after she gained the sequence, she was identified that retinitis pigmentosa – a uncommon degenerative eye illness that causes extreme imaginative and prescient impairment. Then, in 2008, she was declared legally blind when she misplaced 90 per cent of her central imaginative and prescient.
Another setback occurred in August 2022 when months after her second successful BB stint, she was identified with stage-two Usher syndrome, a genetic situation that causes deafness or listening to loss. Therefore, Reggie will sadly and inevitably lose each her imaginative and prescient and listening to in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later.
“It’s a battle. It’s a definitely a challenge living with retinitis pigmentosa. Every day is a challenge,” she tells news.com.au. “I try not to let it get to me and not let it get me down. But I do have my days where thoughts start creeping into my mind, because I’m they said I’m gonna be totally blind with this eye disease.”
“So I’ve just gotta try and make the most of every day, while I can see, because I’ve just got nine degrees of pinhole vision left, and I don’t have any peripheral vision or night vision.”
When Reggie was first identified with RP, she was instructed she had solely 15 years left earlier than she can be fully blind.
However, this yr marks nearly 20 years since her preliminary analysis, so she has miraculously crushed the chances by 5 years, due to her participation in medical trials to try to “slow down what eyesight I’ve got left”.
“When I got diagnosed, they told me I had 15 years before I would be totally blind. I’s been 20 years now, so I’ve got five years on top of what they told me,” she mentioned.
But with the wins come different setbacks, together with her son Lucas identified with cystic fibrosis. Now 12, Lucas was first identified when he was simply 4 weeks outdated, so he has lived with the situation for principally all of his life.
With her RP and Lucas’ analysis, Reggie says she was plunged right into a “bad depression”.
“What I went through, for about two years, was just really horrible depression,” she tells us. “But I pulled myself out of it. Hopefully I’ll never go back down that path ever again. I just think, ‘OK, there’s always someone worse off in the world than me.’ I just have to try and stay positive. I just can’t let it get to me.”
Determined to boost consciousness about blindness, Reggie has now partnered with The Fred Hollows Foundation – a charity near her coronary heart – to be the ambassador for its annual Fred’s Big Run, a health initiative which kicks off subsequent week on August 1.
Participants can register free on-line to participate within the digital on-line health problem to decide on to run, stroll, bike or swim their most popular distance of 50km, 100km or 150km to assist increase a lot wanted funds for individuals who are needlessly blind.
“The goal is to try and help as many people as possible not to deal and go through blindness,” Reggie says. “Fred’s work is bloody amazing – like, the removal of cataracts restores sight to people.”
“I’ve had two cataracts removed myself due to my retinitis pigmentosa. And it’s just amazing when they remove the cataracts, it’s like, ‘Oh my God, I can see.’ No more fog, you know? It’s like as if your eyes are being spray painted. That’s how I can describe having a cataract.”
Of being the ambassador, Reggie says she’s “very humbled” as she likes to assist wherever and nonetheless she will.
“This year I was helping people at the disability expo, and I was so proud to – it makes me happy when I can help people who are less fortunate and have disabilities,” she says.
“A lot of people look up to me and, and I don’t see myself as anything, but a lot of people do love talking to me and the more awareness I can raise about this, the better.”
However, a few of Reggie’s critics are usually not targeted on the nice she’s doing for the imaginative and prescient impaired. Instead, they query whether or not she’s faking her situation.
“You’ve got people going, ‘She’s not blind, she’s fake.’ But I copped all that as well through my time on Big Brother last year. But if I could put anyone in my shoes for a day, I wish they would then understand how hard it is. I’ve just got to educate people.”
“I do feel like telling them to go and get stuffed, but I can’t,” she laughs.
The Fred Hollows Foundation’s Fred’s Big Run begins on August 1. Visit right here to register.
Source: www.news.com.au
