'Next year will be better.' 15 years after Big Brother, here's what Reggie's life looks like now.

For the last few years, around this time, Reggie Sorensen has had the same wish. That “next year will be better”.

In spite of all the lows she’s endured since winning Big Brother back in 2003, the mother of two is determined to stay optimistic.

From that high and the $250,0000 windfall it brought her, Reggie has been through divorce,been the victim of a scam, threatened with eviction from her home and experienced multiple health issues. Now she’s finishing 2018 without a job and a soon-to-expire lease on her Gold Coast rental property, news.com.au reported.

Her seven-year-old son, Lucas, has also spent the past fortnight in hospital with reduced lung function, a complication of cystic fibrosis. The primary schooler was diagnosed with the condition shortly after birth.

“Lucas ended up catching the flu and he lost three kilos within a couple of weeks, which is not good for kids with cystic fibrosis,” she told news.com.au.

A video on Reggie’s Instagram page, shows Lucas sitting in a hospital bed, hugging a blanket, as he awaits surgery to have a PICC line inserted (a catheter that goes in via the arm into a large vein near the heart, for delivery of medicine or nutrients and withdrawal of blood).

“How are you feeling, darling?” Reggie asks.

He answers with one word. “Scared.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Lucas just before going into theatre ???? #piccline #surgery #cysticfibrosis #scared #anxious

A post shared by Regina Sorensen (@reggiesorensen) on Dec 2, 2018 at 8:38pm PST

An update from just days ago, declares that Lucas lung function has improved: “#smashedit” Reggie wrote. “#justbreathe.”

Like her son, Reggie too lives with an invisible condition.

A year after the Tasmanian-born woman’s popular turn on reality TV, she learned she has Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition that has gradually robbed her of her sight.

“Sometimes when I forget to take my cane to the shops and I bang into people … they look at me because I’m so young and just think I’m being rude,” she told Daily Edition back in 2016.

“Even when you’re getting a taxi — I’ve had a few say, ‘You’re only going up the road, why can’t you walk?’ Things like that upset me’.”

She’s now on the public health service wait-list for a cataract operation, but it’s likely to be several years before she reaches the top of the list.

On top of it all, the former call centre worker suffers from a heart condition which she said led to her having a stroke at her desk in 2017. She told 9Honey she was on the phone when her manager approached her and asked if she was OK.

“All the right side of my face went numb and my right eye just drooped and I couldn’t talk properly,” she said. “I didn’t know what was happening.”

Yet still, she’s approaching 2019 with optimism, and doing what she can to make the most of each day.

She’s even open to another stint on reality TV – especially if it’s I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.

“I think it would be hilarious, as I’m afraid of spiders and I hate snakes and I’m afraid of heights,” she told news.com.au.

“It would be funny to watch.”