BREE Amer tells Siobhan Duck how a fan's persistence saved her life.

A Big Brother fan invested a year and hundreds of dollars in phone calls trying to get in touch with Bree Amer after seeing her on Friday Night Live.



The viewer, a doctor, had noticed a lump sticking out of Amer's neck and wanted to advise her to get it checked out as soon as possible.



Amer says the man spent more than $500 phoning Channel 10's switchboard and Ralph magazine but the messages were not passed on.



He eventually got a message to Amer through another Big Brother housemate, whose parents were patients at his Wollongong surgery.



She says the doctor's persistence probably saved her life.



Amer was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last year and, after two surgeries and a bout of radioactive iodine treatment, she has been given a clean bill of health.



“I had been feeling tired but I just put that down to being lazy,'' she says.



“I also had some trouble breathing and the doctors diagnosed asthma. Apparently they didn't notice the 5cm tumour pushing into my windpipe.



“It was awful. It was a pretty stressful time.



“It's weird to think it all happened around this time last year.



“I never imagined that I would have the C word.''



Amer says she is now feeling happy and healthy.



She, along with Ryan “Fitzy'' Fitzgerald and Mike Goldman, are hosting Friday Night Download for Ten.



The show is all about the weird and wacky stuff on the internet with the trio investigating a different topic, including Japanese game shows, bridezillas and crazy grannies, online every week.



Amer is also confident that Big Brother will be back next year, despite rumours it will be rested or moved to another network.



“I do not doubt for a second that it will be back,'' she says. “I would be very surprised (if it was taken off) because it is still a good formula.''



Amer has also found love with Big Brother 2007 housemate Bodie Czeladka. She admits she found Czeladka “very entertaining'' as a housemate, but had not sat there plotting to seduce him once he was evicted.



Czeladka was one of the first to be evicted this year but gained notoriety for his tumultuous fling with volatile Darwin barmaid TJ and for hitting host Gretel Killeen in the head with a rubber chicken during the finale.



Amer says she and Czeladka hit it off during the final week of Big Brother and have been dating since.



And she's not the only one who's all loved-up. Her Friday Night Download co-host Fitzgerald is engaged to his girlfriend Belinda and the pair will wed at Adelaide Oval on March 15.



Not every woman would be thrilled at the prospect of a footy-themed wedding, but Fitzgerald says his other half is rapt with the idea.



Amer and Fitzgerald first found fame as housemates in the 2004 Big Brother series.



Contrary to rumours they had a relationship after leaving the house, Amer and Fitzgerald say they have always been “just friends''.



“We barely spoke in the first few weeks,'' Fitzgerald says.



“But then we later became good mates.



“We are actually quite similar.



“People were always waiting for something to happen between us but it never did. We're just mates.''



Amer and Fitzgerald admit they went on Big Brother hoping to secure jobs in the entertainment industry.



“Anyone who says they aren't going into Big Brother hoping they'll get something out of it is lying,'' Fitzgerald says.



“Even so I couldn't have imagined I would be doing this.



“I don't really think of myself as a celebrity. If anything I am a B-grade celebrity.''



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