Reggie Bird has managed to win over her campmates and Australia with her warmth and authenticity.
The 50-year-old reality star is the current favourite to win the show, according to betting sites. And she only endeared herself to fans further when opening up on camera about her 15-year-old son Lucas’ battle with cystic fibrosis.
“It is heartbreaking and you feel guilty because you’ve given this disease to this little child and there’s nothing they can do about it,” Reggie told her fellow campmates on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!.
“I carried the gene and Dale, their dad, carried the gene and that’s how it comes about. But we both didn’t know we carried the gene.
“We went to the specialist when he was four weeks old and she said, ‘He’s got cystic fibrosis,’ and I just burst in to tears,” she continued.
“I have that guilt, but it is what it is. You know, I do my best to help him get through life.”
HIGH PRICE TO PAY
Reggie – who of course herself is battling the rare degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa – previously told Woman’s Day she’s going into the jungle for her kids’ sake and in the hopes of bettering all their lives.
Especially financially, as the single mum – who also shares daughter Mia, 17, with her ex-husband Dale Sorensen – has been open about the money struggles she’s faced, and the family’s health issues have only added to the strain.
“He has endless medication every day to help him digest his food and to break down the mucous that sits in his lungs. He also has physiotherapy every day and twice a day when he gets sick.”
“There is no rest from cystic fibrosis – you cannot miss a day of physio or taking your tablets,” the two-time Big Brother winner previously told Woman’s Day. And it all adds up.
For now, the multiple medications the teen has to take daily are subsidised by the Australian government under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. But that likely won’t be for long.
“He’s got a health care card but when he turns 16 they take it off him,” Reggie claims. “So I don’t know what’s going to happen when he turns 16. That puts a lot of burden on many families because it’s so expensive when you don’t have a health care card.”
The reality star – who admits it’s been hard to find a job that understands the time she has to take off to support Lucas in hospital – adds that the family can’t access the NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) either to help with the financial burden.
“Even though you’ve got to have all this medication to keep yourself alive each day and all these hospital trips. You don’t know how long you’re going to live for, because the life expectancy is 37,” she says.
“You see a lot of young ones dying all the time but no, he can’t get the NDIS. They don’t see it as a disability.”
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