Block battler: Brave Emma Diamond’s health crisis

With her bright blue eyes, a beaming smile and the ability to sweet-talk the boys into doing most of the heavy lifting, Emma Diamond has taken the drama and renovation chaos of The Block NZ: Girls vs Boys in her stride.

But away from the building site and its cameras, the Dunedin-based beauty has bigger challenges to overcome. “I tend to have everything wrong with me that you could,” says Emma. And the TV3 reality star, who’s on Blue Team with her best buddy Courtney Mackay, isn’t exaggerating.

Her medical problems started at age 13, when Emma would suffer excruciating pain every month during her period.

She tells, “I was passing out and spewing up. It was awful and the pain was debilitating. I would pass out in the hallway at home because the pain was so bad. I wasn’t believed to have endometriosis for a while because I was so young.”

It was only after a referral to a gynaecologist through the school nurse that Emma was diagnosed with the debilitating condition, in which uterine tissue grows outside the uterus, causing pain, inflammation and internal scarring. Since then, she has had four operations to remove the endometriosis, not only on her ovaries, but on her bowel as well.

The ordeal has meant Emma has had to fast-track some important decisions. She says, “My gynaecologist is telling me to have kids now if I want them. I definitely don’t want one now – I will in the future, but then there’s a chance it will be too late.

It does weigh on my mind. Sometimes I think, ‘Oh, my God, I’m 27 and single, and I have three years!’”

The resilient blonde talks about freezing her eggs and has even considered a sperm donor. “I’ll get through the next surgery and see how that goes,” she sighs. “It’s like stuff doesn’t get fixed the first time with me anyway.”

But that’s not the only health scare Emma has had. A couple of years ago, she noticed something wasn’t right when she swallowed. The Masterton-born DIY star constantly had the feeling of food stuck in her throat. Doctors told her not to worry, but Emma knew there was something wrong and after more tests, she was eventually proved right when they found a cyst on her throat.

“It’s not deathly serious, but it can restrict your airways, so I got it removed,” she says. “Now I’ve got a hole in my neck where they removed some bone.”

Watch Emma and Courtney answering quick fire questions in the video. Story continues below.

Recovering at Courtney’s house early last year, it was then that Emma decided to sign up for The Block. She recalls, “I told Courtney I was applying for us while I was filling out the forms!” They didn’t make the cut for season four, but were selected for the following series this year.

The best friends met three years ago, when Courtney, 25, moved to Dunedin to be with her Highlanders rugby beau Joe Wheeler, who’s now her fiancé. Emma was seeing one of his teammates and the two met at a game. “It was love at first sight,” tells Emma.

Although she looks fit and fabulous on The Block, Emma reveals she’s not completely out of the woods when it comes to her health.

“They said the cyst on my throat was really rare and won’t come back, but right before I started the show, I had an MRI and the cyst has regrown,” she says. “It’s already the size of a pea. My surgeon needs to take my file to a conference to find out what to do.”

Laughing, she adds, “I say to my mum that they must have given me the leftover genes because my brother and sister don’t get sick at all. I don’t think they’ve even had one surgery!”

The Block NZ: Girls vs Boys airs Sundays at 7pm, and Mondays-Wednesdays from 7.30pm on TV3. Look out for Block Unlocked on Thursday at 7.30pm this week, and tune in on Sunday, August 14 at 7pm for the Live Auction Grand Finale.