As the fifth housemate eliminated from the Big Brother house in 2020, Danni Uniek wasn’t on our screens for long.
Yet the Queensland mum reveals she’s still surprised viewers saw nothing about her private life and on-going health battle, particularly given she was living with the condition in the house.
WATCH: Big Brother’s new housemates make a bold entrance.
After being caught up in a web of lies and rumours spun by Kieran Davidson, Danni was evicted from the Big Brother house.
Despite her time being cut torturously short, the 34-year-old says she’s “really surprised” the neurological condition she lives with everyday, called functional neurological disorder, wasn’t mentioned at all during the show.
“My movement is affected, my function of my body, my nervous system is affected,” Danni explains to New Idea.
“We have all, well some, of the symptoms of motor neurone disease, MS and parkinsons.”
Danni says the diagnosis completely changed her life, as she was forced to give up what she loved most.
“I used to own my business as a hairdresser, but I got diagnosed and I couldn’t do that anymore. So, that was a really, really dark place for me because I love hair,” she said.
“This is not the life that I thought I was going to be living, but it’s what I’ve got.”
While viewers didn’t get to see signs of the disorder when Danni was on the screen, she explains they were definitely there.
“I have things like ticks in my body, my legs and arms don’t have full function and they don’t move properly. I have muscle spasms and I do have episodes, but I didn’t have any in that house, which is good because it would be a bit confronting for housemates.”
Having lived with the condition for two years, Danni admits although it was “stressful”, she didn’t want it to stand in the way of going on the show.
“It was such a positive thing for me. So even though it was quite stressful, I was just so appreciative to be there.
“That kind of outweighed everything.”
However, she would have loved to have used the show as a platform to raise awareness about her condition and is disappointed her backstory didn’t make it to air.
“I think you don’t always see a disorder and whilst I might not look like someone that has one, that’s usually that misinterpretation,” she said.
“So, take the time to get to know the person, in your real life or in television. Don’t always take it at face value, make sure you make the effort.”
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
