Why climbing a literal mountain made Neighbours actor Olympia Valance put IVF on pause

Neighbours star Olympia Valance needed “a full reset” after four years of infertility struggles. Signing up to an action-based reality TV series made her realise: “I want to live again.”

Former Neighbours star Olympia Valance has hit pause on her gruelling IVF journey after she found unexpected joy climbing a literal mountain.

The 30-year-old actor had just finished a round of IVF and miscarried – not for the first time – when she was approached to compete in the second season of reality television series, The Summit.

“My body was exhausted and my mind was spent,” Valance said.
“I’ve always been an outgoing, happy person and found myself becoming a hermit. I needed a full reset.”

Olympia Valance and husband Thomas Bellchambers.

Olympia Valance on reality show The Summit.

She and her husband, former AFL player Thomas Bellchambers, have been trying to fall pregnant for four years. The couple discussed babies on their very first date.

After filming Netflix series Surviving Summer and Network 10 drama Heat, which was filmed on the same set as Neighbours, where Valance played series regular Paige Smith from 2014 to 2018 — her diary was empty.

“I really wanted to get out of the house and out of my comfort zone,” she told Confidential.

Australian actor Olympia Valance.

The series, filmed in the rugged alps of New Zealand’s South Island, saw Valance thrown together with 14 strangers to climb a mountain in 15 days.

Other famous competitors on season two, which airs from Saturday, include former NRL player Mat Rogers, McLeod’s Daughters actor Simmone Jade Mackinnon, and Bardot member Tiffani Wood.

“As a kid, I never slept over at peoples’ houses. It took me six months to stay at Thomas’s place when we were dating,” Valance said.

“Honestly, I surprised myself every day with the things that I could do.”

Australian actor Olympia Valance filming reality television series The Summit in New Zealand.

Traversing waterfalls and hanging off 100-metre cliffs made Valance realise that she hadn’t felt “real joy and happiness” in the past few years, without life being clouded by “the infertility stuff.”

“When I got back, I felt great. I decided I want to live again and enjoy life. I’m sick of being disappointed every month. I don’t want my next two to three years to revolve around IVF. So we’re going to do life and see what happens.”
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