12:00a.m. 10th October 2008

A bunch of generous local tradesmen and businesses have donated their time and products to help renovate the Saez family home in Maroochydore, the home of teenage tourette sufferer, Bianca Saez. Photo: Brett Wortman/ 178760

Friends and neighbours of Lea and John Saez may have known about their daughter Bianca’s battle with Tourette syndrome but few realised the extent of the damage caused by the teenager’s uncontrollable violent outbursts.

Last month the Saez family opened up their Maroochydore home to the nation when they appeared on Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes to tell of their struggle with 16-year-old Bianca’s debilitating condition and the Australian-first operation she underwent to control it.

Broken bathroom tiles and holes left in walls were just some examples of the domestic destruction that has accompanied Bianca’s life-long battle with Tourette.

The day after Channel Nine’s story aired, callers inundated the Coast radio station 92.7 Mix FM seeking to donate items to fix the family’s home and offer pamper packages to aid Bianca’s return to the Coast following her surgery.

Among those looking to lend a hand was local builder and Saez family friend Daniel Squires and fellow builder Ryan Watts who both put the call out to their tradesmen and suppliers to pitch in for the badly needed repairs.

The call was taken up by a volunteer team comprising almost 40 people representing local businesses too numerous to name here.

“John had originally asked us a year ago about what we could do with his house and we gave him a few quotes but he was fairly low-key about it,” Mr Squires said.

“I’ve known the family for ages and we know Bianca had Tourettes but we had no idea of the state the house was in until we saw 60 Minutes.”

And while the Coast community was pulling together Channel Nine was also receiving dozens of requests from viewers wanting to see Bianca and her family given a hand.

Overwhelmed by the response, Channel Nine enlisted the team from its Domestic Blitz renovation show to link up with the eager local volunteers.

Channel Nine spokeswoman Kirsty Bryant said the network was so impressed by the response from the Sunshine Coast community that they decided to make the massive renovation of the Saez’ home the focus of a special 90 minute length episode which will air in the coming months.

Filming began two weeks ago but yesterday the work was being carried out by the local tradies who have been kept busy re-wiring and rendering the home, installing new a kitchen, bathroom and working on an extension to the deck.

While all this is going on the Saez family are enjoying a family holiday thanks to Channel Nine while Bianca continues to improve following her surgery.