MUM’S FOCUS NEW REALITY DANNI, UNEDITED

DANNI Keogh is excited for what’s next after her whirlwind experience on Big Brother.

The Townsville mum-of-two had a short but intense stint on Channel 7’s reboot of the reality show, spending just six days in the Big Brother house.

“When I first came out I thought ‘Oh my God, I’m not even going to be on the show’, but then I started to realise I was validating my experience by how long I was on the show. I had to reel that in and say to myself ‘53,000 people (applied) Danni and you got through’,” she told the Townsville Bulletin.

“Anyone wanting to do anything like this, please don’t measure your experience on how much TV airtime you get. You need to remember the experience you had in the moment is what’s important.”

As the sole Queensland contestant, her elimination on Monday night – at the hands of devious housemate Kieran Davidson – was a disappointment felt statewide.

But as a reality TV fanatic, Danni can appreciate his efforts to stir up a bit of fake drama.

“I’m one to always appreciate the game play but ultimately I am devastated. I’d rather be evicted for something like them not liking me or me being a challenge beast, but instead it was just no substance at all. It was all just a lie.

“The blindside for me was not so much what Kieran did but that Garth believed it.”

She said there were plenty of lighthearted moments that hadn’t made it to air.

“One thing they haven’t shown is that some of the housemates made up a game called bottle donk, where we would fill up empty milk cartons with water halfway and then slide them like a mix between curling and lawn bowls,” she said. “We’d have huge championships where we’d risk our two eggs; like poker you’d buy in with your eggs.

“We couldn’t listen to music, so we’d all just sing. It would be random like someone would say a line and we’d realise it was from a song and we’d all start singing.”

Another victim of the editing process was Danni’s conversations with Big Brother about her experience with functional neurological disorder.

“Unfortunately they can’t show everything, which has been hardest part about watching it,” she said.

Diagnosed with the rare condition two years ago, she was forced to give up her career as a hairdresser and struggled to find support and treatment.

“It just started with pain and numbness and tingling in one side of my hand and it progressed from there,” Danni said. “I wasn’t able to move my fingers correctly, then my arms and my legs.

“The process for being diagnosed was horrific, to put it bluntly. Every test that would come up would be negative, and I was waiting four weeks to go back for another appointment.

“So when they said ‘it’s a possibility it’s MS (multiple sclerosis)’ there’s that emotional toll it takes on you for four weeks. Then they’d say ‘it could be motor neurone disease’ and it’s another four weeks.

“Then once I was diagnosed it was so difficult to get treatment because there’s not a lot of studies that have been done on it.

“I got so frustrated with not getting the help I deserved and needed that I made an appointment with my local MP Phillip Thompson. He made two phone calls and I had a plan and a way of getting into a rehab centre ... I am so grateful to him for doing that.”

Danni’s symptoms have stabilised.

The 34-year-old, who had her son Landon at 18, hopes to use her time on Big Brother as a platform to inspire other mums and to help prevent teen pregnancies.

“I’d like to see where the Big Brother wave takes me,” she said.

“I’d love to write a book on being a teen mum and what you overcome.

“When you become a teen mum, you’re catapulted into maturity. I missed out on those integral years in your 20s of finding out who you are.

“I’d love to talk to teenage girls about self-esteem and self-worth, and get down to the reasons why they’re engaging in that risky behaviour.” since