Latest / Two Doting Dads with Matty J & Ash / #136 Reggie "Bird' Sorensen Faces The Reality Of Never Seeing Her Kids Again

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#136 Reggie "Bird' Sorensen Faces The Reality Of Never Seeing Her Kids Again · Two Doting Dads with Matty J & Ash

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Matt, you know what my favorite part of watching Arms
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: celeb was go on? Probably when you swallowed that anus. Yes, no,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: but of course your friendship that you formed with none
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: other than Reggie Bird.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: But be honest, what was it more the anus or
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Reggie Bird, My beloved Reggie Bird. Reggie Sorenson, as some
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: people may know her, she is an incredible person.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: She is for sure.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Reggie is, of course, a two time winner of Big
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Brother Australia.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: That's out standing. Despite the Big wins, though life wasn't
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: exactly a guaranteed golden ticket.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Reggie's faced more challenges than most, from growing up in
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Tazzy with her mum's struggles with schizophrenia, to her own
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: diagnosis of Usher's syndrome, which is left her navigating the
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: world with pinhole vision.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: She's doing all this while raising two teenagers, Mia and Lucas,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: which we know Lucas has cystic fibrosis. Reggie opens up
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: about what it's like raising teens while dealing with vision loss,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the financial situation of post reality TV life, and how
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: she's preparing for the future with outside Plus.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: She shares how she stayed resilient through it all and
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: her conversations with Mia and Lucas about facing adversity.
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: Shall we let's do it?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to two doting dads and one doting mum.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: I'm Mattie, Jay, I'm Ash.
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: And oh yes, I'm Reggie.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: This is a podcast all about parenting. It is the good,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: it is.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: The bad, and it's the relatable rage.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: We don't give any advice legally, we're not allowed to.
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: It's a good thing.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's definitely, it's a great thing.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well maybe you can.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Maybe you can provide some advice, but no pressure, no pressure.
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: Advice on what how to look after a kid or anything.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Advice on winning ruffles, best fish and chips.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: We'll take an how do we big brother?
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Anything like that, if you don't mind, I really want
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: to start way back when a young Reggie.
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: What was she like young, like growing up young that young?
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, as a child, a teenager if you will,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: if you.
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: Will, or hated the teenage years, especially hated fourteen. Well,
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: turning fourteen, you know, like you start to grow boobs,
• 2:36
  Speaker 5: and you got acne and you know, and you start
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: to like boys and then it all becomes complicated. And
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: I was getting bullied at schools.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: What do you get bullied for? Reg Oh, I.
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: Got bullied a lot at school because a lot of
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: the girls thought that I was after their boyfriends. But
• 2:53
  Speaker 5: I wasn't allows I wasn't allowed to have a boyfriend
• 2:56
  Speaker 5: in and I got bullied a lot because I had
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: hairy legs as well.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Were you a class clown or were you more of
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: a follow the rules sort of girl at school?
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: No, I did sort of play up a bit at school.
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: I do remember letting a fire extinguisher off in the classroom.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: So everyone has a fire extinguisher story.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Why did you let the fire extinguisher off?
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: Oh, look, I did say I accidentally leant on it,
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: but I don't think I did. I do remember letting
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: it off, and then I got in big trouble and
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: then my school report got rewritten, Like my school report
• 3:38
  Speaker 5: got pulled apart, and then they had to rewrite it
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: because I was like naughty. And then I ended up
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: leaving that school. So I went to Rakeby High School
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: for seven and eight. It was quite a rough school.
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: I grew up in a rough area, very like housing committe.
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, rough as guts. Yeah yeah, that's such.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: A great Aussie expressions.
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: Guts. Yeah. And then I went to year's nine and
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: ten I went to Clarence High School, so that was
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: a bit more of a I got to public school,
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: but it was a bit more uppity class than We're
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: a girl.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Do you remember when you were allowed to start shaving
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: your legs?
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: Oh yeah, Well my cousin flew over from Melbourne. I
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: think I was about again fourteen, and she when I
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: got some of that nair cream and put the nair
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: cream on my legs and I'll never forget the smell
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: of that stuff. So because you know, I always used
• 4:39
  Speaker 5: to get called here comes the bush pig.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: Oh my god, kids are ruthless.
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: Yeah, bloody, brutal. And then and I got in so
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: much trouble because all the hairs had gone off my legs,
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: and I got in so much trouble. Like I remember
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: my nan and saying to my mom, you know, she's
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: after the boys. She's going to attract the boys, you know,
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: like having no hairs on my legs.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: So did it make any difference being being hairless on
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: the legs?
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: Well, I felt like a little bald badger. By then.
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: It was like yeah, nice, nice, It was good. It
• 5:21
  Speaker 5: was good and you know what, me and my daughter Mea.
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: I felt so sorry for her growing up through high school.
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: She had really hairy legs like me as well. And
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: I'm like, I don't care. That girl is not going
• 5:36
  Speaker 5: to go through the torture that I went through at
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: school that those hairs are coming off, like, yeah, they
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: had they had to come. I used to get the
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: clippers and clip them off.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: My god.
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, she wasn't going to go through what I went through. Yeah,
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: poor bugger.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: But I think that's good parenting if you ask me.
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, do you think, like, because because I got
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: bullied so much from having hairy legs, I just thought
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: there's noway in hell me or he's going to go
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: through that same thing, So you know, I hated to do.
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: I think that's outstanding parents. Yeah, I think that's a
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: good look.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I used to get bully for my shoes at school,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and then now also goes to school. I'm like, he's
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: got to have the coolest shoes so he doesn't get bullied.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: So I think you've done the right thing.
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: Yeah, shoes was another thing.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: I had to wear desert boots to school and that
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: was just horrific. So do you know what desert beets are.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Like, the like, the like the leather clarks clarks still.
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: Well, desert beats are like brown kind of sprady.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: I used to own a pack.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: Well, now I know what you're talking about. They became
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: you were an icon? Is that what you were? A
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: fashion icon?
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: Apparently back then I wasn't.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: So yeah, Well, for the record, Rage, you're you're a
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: far cry from a bush pig.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: I think you.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I don't see any semblance.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: And you are an icon.
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: Look what icon I would have looked like one of
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: those more dogs in the jungle Maddie.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: No, Hey, Reggie, I want to talk about Big Brother,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: just really quickly, because I think there's a there's definitely
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: a misconception. I think that people who don't know the
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: full store story of Reggie, they're like, well, she must
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: be sitting on millions of dollars because she's one Big
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Brother a couple of times, Like, surely, but obviously you
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: did win an amount of money off the first time
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: you won Big Brother, But at the time you went
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: back to Tazzy with your first husband, and how did
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: that money get split up? And what did you get
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: left with?
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: So the first time around when I was married to Adrine. Yeah,
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: after winning Big Brother, so I paid off the house.
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: We had a house, and I paid the house off
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: and I left that to Adrian. So I walked away
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: from the marriage. And then when when I moved to Sydney,
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: I had a guy made out. He was a TV producer,
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: so he wrapped me off forty grand. So by that
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: stage I had already ship I think nearly two hundred grand.
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: Hang on, it must have been about one hundred and six.
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: I failed at meth school, just trying to work it
• 8:26
  Speaker 5: all out anyway, So when I moved to Sydney, I
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: think I had left about eighty thousand dollars and I
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: could and then I couldn't get a job for two years.
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: So when I and then when I moved to Sydney,
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: I moved to I didn't know that rush Cutters Bay
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: was this whole knobby smart like fancy place in Sydney.
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: And I with the unit that I rented, I had
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: to put up front twenty thousand dollars up front to
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: get this unit because I didn't have a job and anyway,
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: so I put twenty grand up front for this unit.
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: Then I was getting stalked by the guy that made
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: out he was a TV producer, and I went to
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: go back to the real estate agent to get out
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: of that lease. I ain't been in there for about
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: two months, and they refused to give me any of
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: my money back, so I had to also, yeah, pay
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: all that money up front, so I lost all that.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: So and I lived off the rest of the winnings
• 9:29
  Speaker 5: until I got a job at Virgin. So it all
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: pretty That's where it all went.
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Holy shit.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: So you I mentioned you walked away from the walked
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: away from the marriage. Do you mind going into that
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: a little bit, because I mean, I do recall you winning,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: and I recall I think you had a fish and
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: chip shop at the time. Was that with the same
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: husband and inside to why you walked away from that?
• 9:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So I was with Adrian for gosh, nearly twelve years.
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: I think it was because I was in the shop
• 10:01
  Speaker 5: for twelve years and then our marriage and we must
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: have been a bit less than that because I was
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: in there with another boyfriend prior so David and so anyway, yeah,
• 10:12
  Speaker 5: our marriage broke down. So before going into Big Brother,
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: it was kind of I was at the stage of
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: wanting obviously to change, do something with my life and
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: do something different. And that's why I applied for Big Brother,
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: because I'm like, I wanted a holiday to get out
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: of the shop.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: How often did you get a holiday when you're working
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: in the fish and chip shop?
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: No, not much at all. Because I did go to Europe.
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: Me and Adrian ended up going to Europe. I might
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: have been after I've been in the shop for about
• 10:41
  Speaker 5: eight years. I went, I wanted to travel, and so
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: we went traveling and then I came back was in
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: the shop for another four years and that's when I went, no,
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: I can't do this. I need to get out of here.
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: I need a break. So that's when I applied for
• 10:59
  Speaker 5: Big Brother. And then things happened. I found out after
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: the show. Yeah, a lot of stuff happened. And then
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: I went, now, I can't do this anymore. And then
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: that's when I walked away. Yeah, and I did cop
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: a lot of shit, Like a lot of people said, oh,
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: like Woman's Day for example, bastards, why are they talking
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: about me at the moment. They've coursed a lot. I know,
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: I'm looking back at this, jeez, that's a couple of
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: relationships that causing a few problems with But anyway, so
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: I walked away and yeah, I left Adrian and went
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: to Sydney and then I went to Melbourne.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah at the time, Raad, you were working in the
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: fish and chip shop. The stories I've heard of bus
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: loads of people rocking up to see the fish and
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: chip shop that Reggie used to work at. It was crazy.
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, mad mad after Big Brother, like that shop
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: would have been. They would have made it shit later
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: money because a lot of yeah, buses would rock up
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: and go to the shop just to see where I
• 12:05
  Speaker 5: used to work. So and still to this day, twenty
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: three years down the track, people always go by, Reggie.
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: I went to your fish and chip.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Shop and You're like, don't go there.
• 12:17
  Speaker 5: Adrian's still there. We wrapped up gosh last year. Year
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: before it was because me and rod or Roddy's making
• 12:26
  Speaker 5: a doco on my life, and I went back to
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: the fish and chip shop. I was absolutely shitting myself.
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: So yeah, because I was like, what do I want
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: to do this?
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: How did it feel standing back in the fish and
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: chip shop?
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it was bizarre. It was so weird, really really weird.
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: But that's all going to be in the docade, so
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: people have to watch out for that one.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: Do you know when's it going to come out?
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: Reg Oh, we're still in the making of it, so
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: fingers crossed this year. It's going to be all finished up.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Very cool.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: If you need anyone from the to make a cameo, yes,
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: be gay more than willing. After that, you met your
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: second husband.
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: So yeah. So I was living in Melbourne when I
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: met Dale because I had to go back to dream
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: World to do some work and back at the Big
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: Brother House.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: That's right, it used to be a dream Word.
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: I met Dale through the security guard that used to
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: let us out the house each week. She had to
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: come back and work with me at dream World to
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: look after me while all the fans lined up to
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: get a photograph and an autograph and all that stuff.
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: And she was good mates with one of Dale's mates.
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: And that's how I met Dale. And so anyway, I
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: was living in Melbourne and then I went back to
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: I flew up here to the Goldie, caught up with
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: Dale and we hit it off from there, and then
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: I ended up leaving Melbourne and I came up to
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: the Goldie and then I got pregnant with me because
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: I was shagging too much, so and then that's the
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: damn shaved legs. So that's that's how me and Dale. Yeah,
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: that's how our relationship started.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, before we get into Mia, just out of interest,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: like in that period from obviously you did a bit
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: of work with Big Brother again. But I kind of think, like,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: surely you must have had so many offers like appearances
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: or you know, because you talk about what it was
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: like after the show and you have to you have
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: to have a bodyguard for two weeks, like will you
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: get well, you're not getting people throwing job off, is
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: that you.
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: So after the show, Yeah, I had the two bodyguards
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: with me. I think they stayed with me for a
• 14:43
  Speaker 5: few weeks. And then because I couldn't walk down the street,
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: it was so crazy. It was just mad, absolutely mad.
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: And then I ended up staying in a hotel in
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: the city because I couldn't go home. It was just insane.
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: And then so I was with Harry and Mela, like
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: we had to have what is he an agent? Management,
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: so you couldn't go into the show unless you signed
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: contracts and management. And but I did have quite a
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: few things like offered to me, like Nando's offered to
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: give me a franchise, and they knocked it back because
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: I said, na, she cooks fish and chips. So that
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: was a really big like thing that that happened there.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: Surely you could have adapted to do chicken.
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: I should. Yeah, I can. I make good bloody chicken
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: parmes and chicken burgers. Yeah, but it's really interesting like
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: back in the day, like again, oh gosh, Like you
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: have a lot of offers of things, but then the
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: management doesn't agree with it, and then you got no
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: saying it. It was just yeah, oh, and it was
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: another world. It was a world that I didn't know about. Look,
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: because I so far I was living under a rock
• 16:04
  Speaker 5: down in Chazzy. So yeah, no idea. Yeah I wish
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: I had. I wish I had someone guide me through
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: the whole yeah, entertainment world. And because I had no
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: idea at all about it.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: When you were pregnant with me, was there anyone guiding
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: you through the preparations to become a mum.
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: No, not at all. I had no idea at all,
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: and I was sick the whole time with me. I
• 16:31
  Speaker 5: had that thing. There's a word for it where you
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: vomit NonStop, like vomited what nine months she was nine
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: months old. I vomited up until she pretty much came
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: out of me.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know what you mean. It's hell.
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: It was horrible and I ended up in hospital on
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: a drip I think for about four days because I
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: couldn't even swallow water because I was so sick, so
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: so sick. Yeah, and then I.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: Have a drink of w.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: So I was really really crooked with me, And same
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: with Lucas. I stopped vomiting with him around six months. Mark.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I had no guidance on, you know, how to
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: be a mum.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: I can't imagine nine months of being nauseous. Oh my god,
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: that sounds.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Like one day of a hangover. And I'm like, make
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: it and I deserve more than this.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: So even the smell of coffee, I'd start vomiting just
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: and I used to lay on the toilet floor just
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: next to the toilet just to lift my head up
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: and just vomits.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: We're ashes most weekends.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: Oh men, have it so easy, right, we have it.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: We do have it easy.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Like there's so many variations with pregnancy, and it's like
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: just even just the thought of being nauseous and seek
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: for nine months straight.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: I just wouldn't. Yeah, I couldn't. I couldn't hack it.
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: I didn't enjoy being pregnant at all.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: With Lucas, you've spoken a lot about the fact that
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: he has cystic fibrosis. When did you realized that that
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: was something that you guys were facing.
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: So Lucas was four months old when the results came
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: through from his He'll prick test, So they do a
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: he'll prick test when the babies are born. And I
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: got a letter in the mail when I had like
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: thirty different diseases on there, and when I saw on
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: there one of them was sistic vibrosis, I just thought, shit,
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: I hope it's not that, because I knew how bad
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: it was. One of Dale's mates who he worked with
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: at the fire service, his son has cf rory and
• 18:34
  Speaker 5: we knew what they go through. Yeah, And then I
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: rang Dale and I said, we've got this letter in
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: the mail and there's something wrong with Lucas. And we
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: rang the pediatrician to get in to see them, and
• 18:48
  Speaker 5: they said, no, it's going to take two weeks. And
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: then Dale rang them back and he said no, we
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: want to get in tomorrow, like as soon as possible.
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: So he blasted the shit out of them. Actually, so
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: we did get in the next day and then yeah,
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: that's when they told us Lucas has cystic fibrosis. And
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: I just broke down crying. It's just like, this is
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: the worst thing ever. So that was really really horrible.
• 19:11
  Speaker 5: But I knew something was wrong with Lucas because his
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: peo was very different to me, is so his body
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: wasn't absorbing the food so he was like his pee
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: was just like like a real runny green curry, like
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: it was so bad. Yeah, and I just thought that
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: there was something not right there.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So then after you get that diagnosis, what are
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: your next steps?
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: So after that then we got put in touch with
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: I think the cystic fibrosis nurses, which was then the
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: Lady Cilento Hospital, so we had someone callers, we had
• 19:52
  Speaker 5: to go and have meetings with them, and then it
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: was just a big whirlwind of like, this is what
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: medication that is going to be taken for the rest
• 20:00
  Speaker 5: of his life, this is what he needs, and it
• 20:03
  Speaker 5: was just like what the hell? This is all too much?
• 20:06
  Speaker 5: Like it was very overwhelming and you had to learn
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: how to do phisio on him, like he's just this
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: tiny little baby and you know, and they teach you
• 20:17
  Speaker 5: how to physio was just like taps of the two fingers,
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: just patting his chest at the time.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: And what's that forage.
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: To move the muk it out of his lungs. So
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: with cystic fibrosis Lucas, it's a faulty gene, so mucus
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: sits in their lungs and that's what causes them to
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: not be able to breathe. And Lucas pancreas doesn't work,
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: his liver doesn't work properly. So it's the whole digestive system.
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: It's the CFTR faulty gene and the salt, so the
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: salt doesn't reabsorb back into their body. So like as
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: when we sweat, it all go back in. With Lucas,
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: when he sweats, all the salt comes out on and
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: it stays on his skin. So this is why he
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: has to have salt tablets every day as well. And
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: I'll give him a lot of in summer power aids, gatorades,
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: electrolytes to put that all back in. So when he
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: doesn't have enough salt he becomes very lethargic, and I
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: can tell.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: I had no idea.
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so before he eats and drinks, he has to
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: have his cree on, his MS enzymes, has to have
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: a very high fat, high calorie diet. It's very different
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: to our normal diets. Yeah, because they don't put on weight.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: Growing up rad when he was from Because you realize
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: when he's not even one, how much attention did he need?
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: To make sure you're staying on top of his condition.
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: Oh constant, Like it's absolutely every day without fail. You
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: have to have physiotherapy and make sure he's got the
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: right tablets. And also you've got to remember, like babies
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: don't start eating solid food until they're around what's six
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: months old or a bit older, nine months?
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Maybe you're asking the wrong people.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: We've only got two of them.
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: Oh bit older. Oh gosh, I'm trying to think now.
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: So Lucas had to start having solid sorry foods. It
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: was like, you know, like the baby jill jelly stuff
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: or custards. So we had to break the tablets up
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: the enzymes to put that in the food so he
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: could take the enzymes, so he could drink when he
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: would have milk to try and absorb all that into
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: his body. So he was about six weeks old when
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: he started having had to have custards and jellies and
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: yeah to his little body.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: And then if you're not staying a top of cystic
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: five roses.
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: Oh, they go downhill.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah what does that look like? And then you know,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: do you how do you treat that? Yeah?
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: So, like I said, you've got to do physiotherapy every day.
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: And their bodies, their immune systems so weak that they
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: catch a lot of colds easily. They get to pick
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: up a lot of germs easily. Gosh, Lucas he's been
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: in hospital so many times, so when he gets run
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: like really run down. So if he gets a wet cough,
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: you know straight away like shit, we need to try
• 23:37
  Speaker 5: and get on top of this by giving him antibiotics.
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: But if it doesn't go away, he ends up in
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: hospital and they put a pickline into them and it
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: goes right up to the top of the heart and
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: they pump really strong IV antibiotics into his body to
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: and that's for two weeks at a time. They go
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: in and do that to try and get on top
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: of it again. So we call it tune up to
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: get the body back working properly again for a bit, and.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: Then how are you communicating that to Mia your first order,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: because obviously it must so much of your energy and
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: attention must go towards Lucas.
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it was awful, you know, looking back, I used
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: to feel guilty because me, I would want to, you know,
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: poor little darling of a nighttime she would want a
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: bedtime story, you know, and but I'm like, oh, I've
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: got to give Lucas his physio. So it was a
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: lot of time was spent with Lucas and on Lucas.
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: And I feel like she's grown up missing out on
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: that attention, which is really sad. Like I feel bad
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: that that the way that I did that as a mum.
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: So I look back now and I wish I had
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: put aside that time for me and I didn't give
• 24:52
  Speaker 5: her as much time as what I should have. Yeah,
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: she's sort of grown up now. I feel like she's
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: she's really felt.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: But do you know what, I don't know if ashes
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: are same, But there are so many moments that I
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: have as a parent with Marley and Lola where they
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: want one more piece of me and I can't because
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: of work, or I can't because my attention is drawn elsewhere.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: So just just know that. You know, there's moments, so
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: many moments where I feel like I should have given
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: more and I couldn't. And you know, I get that
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: parent guilt as well.
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: Shit, yeah, well I guess it happens to us all. Yeah,
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: but yeah, I do feel bad for not giving her
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: that attention.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: No I don't.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: What's your what's your relationship like with me? Like these days?
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: She's ulterately eighteen seventeen.
• 25:40
  Speaker 5: She turns eighteen next week.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, oh, how are you feeling about that? Oh?
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: Look, well I was excited that she got a license.
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: So she got a driver's license when we're in the jungle.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: Very cool.
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah, And I couldn't wait to get in the car
• 25:56
  Speaker 5: with her. In the minute I did, I'm like, shit,
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: get me out of here. She's got a lead foot.
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: But she's turning eighteen, and hopefully she goes out and
• 26:10
  Speaker 5: has a bit of fun and steers clear of bad things.
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: You know, you're worry about the kids being drugs and oh,
• 26:19
  Speaker 5: just this whole she's about to experience that whole nightclub world.
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: So I mean back in the day when I went
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: nightclub and all I did was dance or you know,
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: you just dance. But these days stuff knows what they
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: take to stay up all night because I'm not into
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: that shit. But yeah, I'm a bit worried about her
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: turning eighteen.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: It's a scary phase where they're becoming little adults and
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: you step back and include yourself, but at the same
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: time you're like, I still want to hold her hand
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: and pick her up from the nightclub every evening.
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: Yes that nay. Look, I went through the phases of
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: her hating school and not wanting to go to school,
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: but she ended up making it through to the end
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: of school, which was really really good. So she's turned
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: out to be a good girl. She really has.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Oh she's amazing, Ash.
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: Oh yeah, you merry.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Something else you've spoken a lot about is your eyesight.
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, my eyes are shit for those.
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: That's a good.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: For those who don't know. And for Ash, what was
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: the moment where you realize you might have an issue
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: with your eyesight?
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: I found out about my eye disease, which is called
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: retinitis pigmentosa, was when I went to work at Virgin
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: and I was training in Melbourne. In the training we
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: had to work with people with disabilities, and this blind
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: lady came in and she spoke about how she went blind.
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: And one of the first things she said was I
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: couldn't see in the dark. And I'm like, shit, I
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: can't see in the dark. I can't see in the dark.
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: And she said, you need to go and get your
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: eyes checked, and I did. I went to an optometrist
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: and they said, no, you need to go to an ophthalmologist.
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: And I went to the ophthalmologist and they said, oh, well,
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: you got these iro disease and it's retin, it's pigmentasa
• 28:09
  Speaker 5: and you're going to go blind. And I was like,
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: oh shit, Like I didn't really think anything of it.
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: I really didn't. And then it wasn't until I moved
• 28:20
  Speaker 5: here when I was with Dale and I had mea
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: after I had Meya and Miya was crawling on the
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: floor and I used to kick her and trip aver,
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: the poor little thing. You know, I'd be walking along
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: and the next thing she's got a big kick in
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: the guts from me and yeah yeah, And he said,
• 28:38
  Speaker 5: gont get your eyes checked again, and I did. I
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: went and got them checked. And then that's when they
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: said pretty much said you need to stop driving, and
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: I'm like, shit, so my whole will come crashing down.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: Were you at that point?
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: So I was thirty four, I think when I had
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: Maya thirty four? How old am I now? I'm fifty
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: one now? Oh, I don't know. I think I was
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: about thirty four when I had to stop driving. Wow,
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: sixteen years, what is it?
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: So seventeen years.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine having kids and not having not been
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: able to drive because because of because of it, it
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: must have How did you get around?
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: How was that aful?
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah? Buses, buses and taxis and walk. So I walk
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: everywhere because a lot of people always go g legs,
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: g legs, legs, g read You got nice legs, That's
• 29:34
  Speaker 5: what I was trying to say, freshly shaved, those freshly
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: shaved legs. I'd say it's from.
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: Those kids from primary school.
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: Could see it now, see these legs now, Yeah, it's
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: from all the walking. But that's how I get about.
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: But it was really hard when mel was a baby
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: getting out and about. It was just awful because where
• 29:59
  Speaker 5: we lived it wasn't too far to get to the shops,
• 30:04
  Speaker 5: but it was far like I couldn't carry a heap
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: of groceries home, and I'd always have a lot of
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: trouble with taxis picking me up because they're like because
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: I knew it was such a short drive, so it.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: Was really hard to get a selfish of them.
• 30:17
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and you couldn't get a bus where I lived,
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: Like a bus would only come once an hour, and
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: it didn't stop anywhere near where I lived. And back then,
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: like you didn't have ubers, but it was super hard
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: to get around, and it was that's gosh. I think
• 30:35
  Speaker 5: it was after I had Lucas that was even harder,
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: having two little kids and just trying to bloody get
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: around was awful.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Ch did they tell you at that point what percentage
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: of your eyes like you'd lost and how quickly it
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: was it was going.
• 30:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So at that time, I think when I got diagnosed,
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: I only I think I had about fifteen degrees of
• 30:58
  Speaker 5: vision left and now only fifteen I think back then
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: yet because it was below twenty because that's when you're classed,
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: or it might have been ten. Oh shit, because I've
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: only got nine eight or nine degrees left now, But
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: it was must have been about fifteen because I think
• 31:17
  Speaker 5: when it's below twenty degrees, that's when your class is
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: legally blind.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 31:24
  Speaker 5: So, and then when I got diagnosed, they gave me
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: fifteen years time frame. They said I'll be totally blind,
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: totally blind within fifteen years. So I'm hanging on. I've
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: gone six years over that now, so I'm just hanging
• 31:37
  Speaker 5: on to that.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: Little The joke's on them. Then, I guess I've got
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: left so good on.
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: No, That's why I get out and do whatever I can.
• 31:45
  Speaker 5: And when I had that opportunity to go into the jungle,
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: I'm like, yes, I'm taking this, you know, grab it
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: with both hands and just bloody go and have fun.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: Do they tell you now, Rag, do they rediagnose how
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: much time you have left? Or do you want to know?
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: It is getting worse, Maddie. It's definitely getting worse because
• 32:04
  Speaker 5: I'm doing clinical trials as well. At the moment. I've
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: been on these trials for two years and I feel
• 32:11
  Speaker 5: like my eye like I don't know if I'm taking
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: the real drug or it's a plus ebo. But I
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: do feel like my eyes have got worse since I've
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: been on these trials. But it again, I don't know
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: whether it's my eyes deteriorating or it could be the
• 32:24
  Speaker 5: drug that I may be on. I'm not sure, but yeah,
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: I don't know because when I go and have all
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: these tests done, because it's a lot of testing, and
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: and you do the field tests, like because I've got
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: no peripheral vision at all, and yeah, so each time
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: they do the testing, they don't tell you, like on
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: the clinical trials, how much a vision I've got left.
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: It's not until I go and see my ophthalmologist and
• 32:54
  Speaker 5: I do same testing, and then they tell you if
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: I've lost more percentage each time I go there, right, Yeah.
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: And how long does the clinical testing last?
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: For us? It was meant to be a two year trial,
• 33:08
  Speaker 5: but they've now turned it into a five year trial.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: Well, and like you said, you don't you don't know
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: if you're on the placebo or not. That's why, isn't it.
• 33:16
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's crazy because when you go somewhere, like from
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: an example, going over to the jungle in South Africa,
• 33:24
  Speaker 5: you've got to write down all what medications you take.
• 33:26
  Speaker 5: And I had to get a letter. I'm ringing them.
• 33:30
  Speaker 5: I said, look, I'm going away, I need a letter
• 33:32
  Speaker 5: to say whether this is I don't know what they
• 33:36
  Speaker 5: write in these letters, but you know to get a
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: pass to get it through customs and stuff. Yeah. Even
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: when I went to Bali last year with Phil, I'm like,
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: I was shit scared to take the tablets over in case.
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: It was like, I didn't know. You don't know what's
• 33:50
  Speaker 5: in these things.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: You've been taking cocaine for the last tinths.
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: I imagine you're logged in a valley jail.
• 33:57
  Speaker 5: Maybe that's why if brain's fried, even more so.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: Don't take them in a bodyboard bag.
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: No, no, so I don't know that. Yeah, the Trials
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: has still got a long way to go, and it's
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: all about trying to slow down what vision I've got
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: left to try and say, yeah.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: We know.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: Going to the soup market is one of the hardest
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: moments with young kids, Yes, and it must be even
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: harder when you've got limited vision. With any scenarios in
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: the soupermarket where it was particularly challenging.
• 34:33
  Speaker 5: Oh yes, I got run over by this old man
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: on a big mobility skeeter. He made me down and
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: so sorry, Hey, the old bugger he made me down here.
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: So I was walking to the twelve items or less aile,
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: we miss our cream. And then next I was walking
• 34:52
  Speaker 5: with my cane, so I always use my cane when
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: I go into crowded places or the shops, just to
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: let people know, you know, I can't see very well.
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: And then he came down on my right hand side
• 35:05
  Speaker 5: and just rang me down. He ran me down and
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: I then he reversed back and ran over me again, yeah,
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: screaming at me. He's gone, You're as blind as I am,
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: yelling at me, and I'm laying on the floor you
• 35:22
  Speaker 5: and all I could see was my sour cream on
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: the floor. And then I looked up. All these people
• 35:27
  Speaker 5: were looking at me, and they were staring at me.
• 35:30
  Speaker 5: I was reading to bloody ring me, who's that hang up? Ah? Sorry?
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: Yes, So he ran you over, then reversed back over
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: you and then yelled at you yes.
• 35:42
  Speaker 5: And then all these people were just staring at me.
• 35:44
  Speaker 5: And then this lady came and helped me, and all
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: I could see was her face. I was looking at
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: her face and she helped me up, and she helped
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: me go to the counter to pay for my sour cream.
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: And the lady who works he she said, you okay, REGI,
• 35:59
  Speaker 5: because I'm regular down at Woolies and I said, no,
• 36:03
  Speaker 5: this man just rang me down. And she goes, what
• 36:05
  Speaker 5: in here? And I said, yeah, in here, and I
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: went and sat outside. I rang me here because I
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: was just with me and we had lunch and Maa
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: come over to help me and told her what happened.
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: And then she goes, mom, is that him? And she
• 36:17
  Speaker 5: saw him coming out of Woollies and I said, chase him.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: I said, chasey, it's a hit and run, a hit
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: he just left.
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 36:26
  Speaker 5: So she took a photo of his number plate on
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: his scooter and then I after Woolies, they said after
• 36:36
  Speaker 5: I sit that side and the Woolies lady she said,
• 36:38
  Speaker 5: do you want to look at the footage?
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: Red?
• 36:40
  Speaker 5: And I said yes, I do. Oh no, I said, look,
• 36:42
  Speaker 5: I'll come back tomorrow. And I went back the next
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: day because I was so shook up. And I went
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: back the next day to look at the footage and
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: she said, sorry, it's against our legal rights to show
• 36:53
  Speaker 5: you the footage.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: She's like, what footage?
• 36:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, So she said you need to see the
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: police if you want to get the footage. So then
• 37:02
  Speaker 5: I had to go to the police with Roslynch. She
• 37:05
  Speaker 5: took me and we got the footage and because I
• 37:08
  Speaker 5: just wanted to see what happened.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: You know, do you have the footage?
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I've got the footage. I'd love to be show
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: One day I will release the footage of me getting
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: modam and woollies. Long long story about me going to
• 37:26
  Speaker 5: the supermarket. But yes, it is hard going to the supermarket.
• 37:29
  Speaker 5: I've now got a favor of bloody mobility scooters.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: I see them driving down the road sometimes and like
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: on the footpath little I don't know what's scary. The
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: kids on scooters are the old people on their mobility schools.
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: I'll never be able to look at one the same.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: Be careful, I will be careful.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: I can't believe the audacity to run you over, reverse
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: back over the top of.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: You and then yell at you and then run the audacity.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: Yes, rech with Lucas. Now is he fifteen?
• 38:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah he's fifteen. Yeah, he'll be sixteen this year.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: And how's he going with the cystic fibrosis? Now, how's
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: he managing it?
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: He goes to the gym. I've just signed him up
• 38:14
  Speaker 5: for rugby league. He's yet to have a game. He
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: went to the training the other week and he's going, mam,
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: the big boys like he's going because he's in the
• 38:26
  Speaker 5: under sixteen. So I said, I said they're big. He goes,
• 38:28
  Speaker 5: they've got beds and I said, I know, like, tell
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: me about it. They are all these big islanders, like
• 38:34
  Speaker 5: they're huge, they're messive. So I think he's a bit
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: worried he's going to get smashed because he's He's very
• 38:42
  Speaker 5: fast though. He's a fast runner. So I don't know
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: much of that wing. Is that what it is?
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: Put by the wing and he can just run fast
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: from them. That's the benefit of being fast. They're usually slow.
• 38:54
  Speaker 5: Okay, so he's very very fast, So whatever. I still
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: don't understand that game. And anyway, it's stupid.
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: I don't get it. It's it's where I played. I was.
• 39:06
  Speaker 2: I was a little string bean, but I was quick,
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: and they were like, you can go on the wing. Yeah, okay,
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: So get his coach and just say put him on
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: the wing.
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: And put him on the wing. Okay. Yeah, So that's
• 39:18
  Speaker 5: what he does. He goes to the gym and he's
• 39:20
  Speaker 5: going to start doing that. He used to play basketball.
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: But again, another thing happened there was when they went
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: back the next season, all the boys just shot up
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: like they're huge. Anyway, Mum, it's too he goes, it's
• 39:33
  Speaker 5: too big for me. So he quit basketball. Yeah it
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: was too, so.
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: He picked a more contact sport with bigger people.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: Does he want to play chess?
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: Yes, I don't know. I said maybe he should play
• 39:47
  Speaker 5: He should play soccer. I used to play. I used
• 39:50
  Speaker 5: to play soccer.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: So here you go. He probably probably really good, is
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: he is?
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: He is?
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: He still going to school?
• 39:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's been hard this year because I pulled He
• 39:59
  Speaker 5: was at Helen's fail High and I pulled him out
• 40:02
  Speaker 5: of that because he was he wasn't really happy there,
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: so I've put him into another school and now I
• 40:07
  Speaker 5: think it's just the same thing. He's not real one
• 40:10
  Speaker 5: hundred percent happy here either, So I think school all
• 40:14
  Speaker 5: around is not Lucas's thing. So yeah, which is really hard.
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: So he's always been put in the hard basket all
• 40:22
  Speaker 5: through school with his illness, so he's never really enjoyed school.
• 40:27
  Speaker 5: So hopefully, I don't know, pull him out and put
• 40:31
  Speaker 5: make him get a job, you know, get an apprenticeship.
• 40:33
  Speaker 5: He wants to be an electrician or a carpenter or something,
• 40:37
  Speaker 5: so that'd be good if he did something like that.
• 40:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I can imagine it would be.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you're already if school's not your thing,
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: and then of course he's got to manage his systic.
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: I'm guessing it's really really hard for him. Just so
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: you know, I didn't. I left school at fifteen, and
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: I'm fine, good on you.
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: What did you do when you left school?
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: I left to do an apprenticeship too. I've had a
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: million jobs since then. But it definitely like how Lucas
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: might be feeling, where it's like school is not his
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: thing and working with your hands and doing a trade
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: was actually really beneficial for me. So hopefully he can
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: find what's for him.
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: If there's any sparky companies or builders who listening to
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: the podcast who might be on the Gold Coast and
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: looking to take on a young kid a whiper.
• 41:22
  Speaker 5: Whipper snipper, wheper snipper. Yeah, I think him getting an
• 41:27
  Speaker 5: apprenticeship would be great. It would really be good.
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: For him and Reggie at the moment. I know you've
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: spoken about the fact that like, I'd love a job,
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: like I'd love I'd love something, and you're like, I
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: just need someone to give me a go do you
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: know what would be the dream job? Do you think
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: at the moment.
• 41:43
  Speaker 5: At the moment, a dream job would be I'd love
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: to do radio. Be awesome. I'd be great on radio,
• 41:50
  Speaker 5: just saying, but anyway, as long as I don't swear.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: You'd be very good with your swearing on this episode.
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: By the way, Yeah, I was going to say, I
• 41:57
  Speaker 3: don't know, I don't know.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: He's done with the normal, Regie, I know.
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: Go on, let a few out.
• 42:02
  Speaker 5: Oh, look, I'm really bad. I'm really bad, even you
• 42:06
  Speaker 5: know when we're in the jungle, because we were told
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: it's a what is it? A PG show friendly time slot?
• 42:12
  Speaker 5: Very family friendly.
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: I had very talking about the whole time.
• 42:17
  Speaker 5: I was too there's a lot Maybe that's why I
• 42:23
  Speaker 5: didn't get much ere time.
• 42:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, maybe you could be a comedian. Reg I know a.
• 42:30
  Speaker 5: Lot of people have seen Reach. What do you do comedy?
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: And I'm like, oh, I don't know.
• 42:34
  Speaker 3: Crack some jokes? Why not?
• 42:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: Maybe really good at it.
• 42:37
  Speaker 5: I don't know, whatever comes out of my mouth just
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: comes out, you know.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: Naturally that's perfect for a comedian, right, Yeah, because Rege,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: we can and we don't have to include this in
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: the episode.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: If it's too personal. But at the moment, being on
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: a blind pension, how much do you receive a week?
• 42:57
  Speaker 5: So being on a blind disability pension, because so I
• 43:01
  Speaker 5: used to get the family tax benefit thing, but when
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: when the kids leave school and stuff, you don't get
• 43:08
  Speaker 5: that anymore. So at the moment, I think it's around
• 43:12
  Speaker 5: thirteen hundred or fortnight and I pay six fifty a
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: week crent. So there you go, jeus leasure with nothing.
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: It's like, yeah, yeah, so that's why. Yeah, the second
• 43:30
  Speaker 5: big brother, a lot of the money's been lived off
• 43:34
  Speaker 5: and read.
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: I know, like you're such a positive person and you
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: smile through it, but do you have that worry of like, shit,
• 43:42
  Speaker 2: you know, I really need to get something to sink
• 43:45
  Speaker 2: my teeth into.
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: I should get totally. Like even with you know, me
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: and ride my mate Roddy, we're always doing stuff and
• 43:55
  Speaker 5: trying to you know, get my social media page up
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: and the numbers up on them, just so I can
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: just try and do stuff. You know, I need to
• 44:08
  Speaker 5: get a job. But yeah, it's really hard because being
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: vision impaired you're limited to what you can do. So
• 44:20
  Speaker 5: and yeah, blind disability pension doesn't cut like these days
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: I'm very I'm thankful that I get something, but with
• 44:29
  Speaker 5: the rentals these days, it's just insane how much rent
• 44:33
  Speaker 5: people pay these days. It's crazy and it's only going
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: to get worse and it's going to get harder. So yeah,
• 44:39
  Speaker 5: I need to get an income coming in because I'm
• 44:42
  Speaker 5: really startmership yourself.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Are you ever hesitant to let people know about
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: the fact that you're blind because it just instantly paints
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: you as being a certain type of person.
• 44:53
  Speaker 5: No, not at all. I'm yeah, Like like when I
• 44:58
  Speaker 5: first found out about my blindness, I was. I remember
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: when the very first time I had to wear my
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: disability badge, like my my blind badge, lay vision badge.
• 45:09
  Speaker 5: I was so embarrassed. And when I used my cane
• 45:12
  Speaker 5: for the first time, I was so embarrassed. I was
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: so embarrassed and I didn't want to use it. But
• 45:16
  Speaker 5: now I couldn't do without both of them. So no,
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: I'm happy to let anyone know that you know, I'm
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: vision impaired and legally blind, even though I get bagged
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: a lot now after going on Bloody I'm a celebrity.
• 45:30
  Speaker 5: Get me out of here. All the trolls on they're
• 45:32
  Speaker 5: saying I'm faking it. So you were a good guy
• 45:35
  Speaker 5: dog for me, Maddie.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: In there, I pulled you into a couple of trees.
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: You did, you did? Tell me? You did? Tell me?
• 45:44
  Speaker 2: That was just testing outing me.
• 45:53
  Speaker 5: Tell you about the rock that he used to make
• 45:55
  Speaker 5: me trip on so i'd fallen, Grabby's.
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: Tell me tell me about a rock? Is it a
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: penis shaped rock or a rock shaped peenis?
• 46:03
  Speaker 5: There was a rock and you try and because walking
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: it to the waterfall, it was a real battle. It
• 46:09
  Speaker 5: was a trick, wasn't it, Maddie? Like it was everest.
• 46:13
  Speaker 5: Oh my godness, it was so hard. And he take
• 46:18
  Speaker 5: me along this path of the rocks, and yeah, no
• 46:22
  Speaker 5: I did. It did make me fall and I did
• 46:24
  Speaker 5: accidentally grab his penis.
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: And what did you think about the penis red?
• 46:29
  Speaker 5: Well, we just got out of the water, which was
• 46:32
  Speaker 5: freezing cold, and I must say it wasn't shriveled up.
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: That's all right. I heard the big ones hurt. Well
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: that's what my wife tells me. Anyway, Oh my god.
• 46:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So now I'm happy to let people know that
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: I'm visioning pair just grab.
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: Them on the penis, don't know?
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: Read one question? We always end on. When Mia and
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: Lucas have flown the nest no longer with you, is
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: there anything that you would like them to remember about
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: the house they grew up in?
• 47:11
  Speaker 5: Oh gosh, it's hard many because I rant we've moved
• 47:15
  Speaker 5: that many bloody times now. It's shit because the owners
• 47:21
  Speaker 5: either more.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: About the type of mum that they had growing up.
• 47:24
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Oh, that'd be good. Yeah, because we've moved about
• 47:28
  Speaker 5: six seven times now. The house they grew up Oh Jesus,
• 47:35
  Speaker 5: the mum that they grew up with would be a kind,
• 47:40
  Speaker 5: loving mum that tried to do the best that she
• 47:43
  Speaker 5: could for them.
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: That's yeah, that's awesome meeting you.
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: I think that they're very lucky to have you, and
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: you're very, very kind and very loving.
• 47:52
  Speaker 3: And I really appreciate the time that you spent with us.
• 47:56
  Speaker 5: Oh, thank you for having me on. I hope this
• 47:59
  Speaker 5: has been a boys.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: No, it's been amazing. Thank you so much, Regie. And
• 48:04
  Speaker 2: for the record, I think you're a great mum.
• 48:06
  Speaker 5: Thanks. Maybe, yeah, I do the best that I can.
• 48:11
  Speaker 3: Good, Thank you so much again. Reggie.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: Oh mate, I don't know how Reggie does it. If
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: you want to keep up with Reggie, make sure you
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: check out the show notes for all the links to
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: our social media and while.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: You're there, give us a follow and a rating, why
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: not a subscription? Share it with a friend.
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: Five stars, maybe a couple of stars, Hey, maybe just
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: a couple.
• 48:32
  Speaker 3: Just be free, three, four or five you.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: We haven't had a one or two or three star lately,
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: not have we had one at all.
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: It's been a while.
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: But hey, if you're listening to this and you think
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: we're shit, we want to hear from you.
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we don't see you next time.
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: Bye.
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: Two Doting Dad's podcast acknowledges the traditional custodian of country
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: We pay our respects to their elders past and present
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torrestrate islander
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: peoples today