Sasha's Secret Surgery Hell

The Former Contestants Share the Heartbreaking Battle They’ve Been Fighting

- Jacqui Lang

As fans of TV series The Block well know, renovation queens Sasha Wright Neville and Julia Treuel are used to rising to challenges – but lately the couple have had to fight to stay upbeat after Sasha received some crushing health news.

One moment, the two were clinking glasses, celebrating becoming runners-up – and the first lesbian couple – on the hit Channel Nine renovation show, and getting ready for a US holiday. The next, Sasha was in hospital, in agony with crippling stomach cramps.

Late last year, Sasha, 43, was diagnosed with a severe case of endometriosis, the condition in which tissue normally grown in the uterus spreads elsewhere in the body.

‘I’d been in so much pain, it was a relief to finally get a diagnosis. The gynaecologist said it was the worst case they’d seen in decades,’ Sasha says from the Melbourne home she shares with Julia, 32, her partner of five years.