Annabel Lloyd formed a close friendship with Casper Kenworthy on MasterChef Australia, and she has revealed how her nursing background helped her come to his aid when his cystic fibrosis flared up during the show.
Casper was diagnosed with the genetic condition later in life, and he is on medication to manage his symptoms. During a post-elimination interview with Chattr, Annabel revealed that her friendship with Casper deepened after discovering they shared a connection to cystic fibrosis through her work as a nurse.
“I work in heart and lung transplant, and lung transplantation, which is like end treatment options for people with cystic fibrosis, so I have so many beautiful patients that have cystic fibrosis, and so when I found out that Casper had it, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is incredible! I had a really good understanding of sort of the symptoms he does have. He’s really lucky in that he has quite a mild form of it, but it still affects him,” she said.
Annabel reflected on a behind-the-scenes moment when her nurse connections came in handy to help Casper.
“There was one time when he’d run out of his medication, and we were down in Melbourne, and so we were trying to source this really rare sort of CF medication from all over Melbourne,” she explained.
“Obviously, in my head I had my contacts, and I was like, I know the lung transplant unit in Melbourne; I know they’ll have it. So let’s give them a call, and they did! So, that was cool.”
Annabel said her bond with Casper had grown so strong that when it became clear either she or Casper would be eliminated during Poh’s Pressure Test, she hoped he would be the one to stay.
“When I was standing next to Casper, and it was him and I, I was like, ‘Oh my God! I don’t want Casper to go home. I really don’t want him to.’ I don’t want to go home either, but I really don’t want Casper to go home,” she laughed.
Has Annabel followed her dream of becoming a nurse-chef?
In the final moments of Annabel’s elimination episode, which aired on July 22, she revealed that she planned to let her work know that she wanted to cut down her hours a bit, so she could balance a cooking career with nursing, calling her dream role a “nurse-chef”.
Annabel told Chattr that she’d luckily told her boss about reducing her shifts, “literally last week”.
“I don’t know how she would feel if she just had to learn on national TV I wanted to drop my hours,” she laughed. “We had a conversation; my workplace has been so supportive, and you know, dug really deep, and so I’m extremely committed to staying with them. But yes, I will be reducing my hours so that I can really give cooking the time and attention that it needs in order to be able to give this post-MasterChef career a red hot crack.”
While nursing and cooking might not seem like an obvious pairing, Annabel explained how she could see her two passions merging together.
“I would love to combine both and do cooking events and pop-ups raising money, and to then be able to go and do international aid trips and healthcare aid trips and stuff like that. That would be such a cool way to sort of combine the two, and then continue to do my like transplant job part time.”
MasterChef Australia airs on Channel 10 and 10Play on Sunday – Monday on Channel 10 and 10Play.
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