Survivor Polska

One of the faces South Africans will see on a billboard belongs to a beautiful blonde mother of two, Lee-Anne van Reenen, who interrupted her duties as reigning Mrs Cape Town 2018 to prove that her grit and resilience match her looks.

Lee-Anne is bent on tearing up those stereotypical beauty queen labels. She’s married to the bassist of the band Taxi Violence, holds an honours degree in Psychology, obtained five distinctions in matric, captained the KZN action netball team, counsels drug addicts and traumatised teens, and has survived several personal tragedies, including a cancer scare and double miscarriage. At first glance she may come across as sweet and kind-hearted – and she is – but there's a whole lot more to her. She has a spirit of steel. A mere month after the trauma of losing her twins, she completed the 947 cycle race.

As Lee-Anne pours her heart into NGOs making a difference in informal settlements like Zwellenemba in Worcester, she says she entered Survivor SA not only to win, "but also to step into the shoes of those who have absolutely nothing; no bed, no food, no warmth, no shelter”. While she revels in deconstructing stigmas and stereotypes, she will happily act them out to deceive the other castaways. “My strategy is to kill them with kindness,” she smiles.