SHE'S been branded a liar, a gold-digger, a bitch and an attention-seeker, but Big Brother finalist Makosi Musambasi says she was just being herself.

The 24-year-old former cardiac nurse at Wycombe Hospital talks candidly about her time in the house, her mother's illness and her love for the Bucks Free Press.

Zimbabwean-born Makosi has not stopped since finishing third in the Channel 4 reality TV show. She has posed in national newspapers, appeared on countless TV and radio shows and has had to do lots of interviews, but the only thing she has been looking forward to is coming home to Wycombe.

She says: "I initially lived in Amersham five-and-a-half years ago at the hospital halls of residence, and then I moved to Wycombe three years ago. Wycombe is beautiful, I love it. I am not leaving Wycombe.

"I was talking to my agent earlier and he told me that I was going to be working in London, and I was like Wycombe is 30 minutes away, so I will travel. Where I live is quite nice. I can't wait to go back.

"I can't wait to go back to Time. When I was a student I used to go to Here and Now every Thursday, get drunk and then walk back up the hill to my flat without my shoes, and I cannot wait to go back."

Makosi (her name translates as queen) has never had a boyfriend from High Wycombe because she prefers to have her own space, and although she admits to being an attention-seeker, the real reason she applied to go on to Big Brother 6 was to raise money for her seriously ill mother, Sennie, who has a brain tumour.

She says: "I went on to Big Brother for all sorts of reasons, but the most important reason is that my mum has a brain tumour. It's benign, it is not malignant, but it is sitting on optic nerves which could make her blind or if it gets bigger or ruptures it could cause problems.

"She has been in and out of hospitals, but at the moment she is on steroids which are helping to control the size of the tumour.

"Her having an operation is going to cost a lot of money, so I thought if I can use myself to raise money for my mum then fair enough."

Sennie, 48, is in Zimbabwe with Makosi's father and five other siblings. One of her sisters Veronica, who she lives with in Wycombe, came to England three years ago to also do nursing and is a psychiatric nurse at Wycombe Hospital.

Makosi has not been back home to visit her mum for more than a year, and she can't wait to see her.

Sennie told her children two years ago that she was ill, but Makosi believes her mum has had the tumour much longer than that but chose not to tell them in a bid to protect them.

She adds: "She got very ill and I had to be pulled out of college. Her doctors used to send letters for me to be able to travel back home because she could not walk."

Makosi had to work long hours and save as much money as she could to be able to afford the ten-hour flight back to Zimbabwe, which has meant she has never been on a proper holiday.

She is now hoping the money she makes from her instant fame as a Big Brother contestant will help buy her mum much-needed medication and care.

The curvy nurse will mostly be remembered for having sex with housemate Anthony Hutton on the show, and then believing she was pregnant and asking for a pregnancy test. This behaviour led to her being vilified. But she stands by her version of events.

She says: "As a nurse I know you can conceive the minute you have sex. You can find out three weeks later but potentially, you could have conceived during that one time. I was aware that it could upset a lot of people. I was aware that it could upset Anthony's fans. I was not trying not to upset people.

"I was just trying to be Makosi. If that had happened out of the house, I would have still panicked and gone oh my gosh, I'm pregnant' because that's me.

"I did what I would have normally done. I did think that it would upset people but I thought, I am not trying to be politically correct, I'm going to be Makosi."

Makosi has lost a lot of friends after appearing on Big Brother which she is quite upset about, particularly as one of them was a 19-year-old guy called Nyasha who she was fond of.

She says: "As much as I have gained a lot, I have also lost. What hurts the most is that I have lost my ex-boyfriend. It's sad really because I really, really, really liked him. I am not surprised or angry with him that he is very upset with what has happened but I have lost him, and I really liked him."

During the live interview with Big Brother Presenter Davina McCall, Makosi was booed and heckled by the crowd throughout, mainly due to her pregnancy claims in the House and a newspaper exposing her as an alleged actress which Makosi was totally unaware of. She was shocked and upset that Davina did not do anything to stop it.

She adds: "The booing I expected, so I was prepared for that. What I did not expect was the reaction I got from Davina. I felt let down as she was a woman I looked up to. And during the day we were told: don't worry about a thing, Davina's a lovely woman, she will look after you.' When she judged me I thought, you are a presenter, ask me a question and I will answer it, don't start saying I'm big-headed, don't start saying I'm showing no remorse'."

For Makosi the whole Big Brother experience was about being herself and what she is about, and believes it was unfair that other nurses were calling for her to be struck off for her antics in the house.

She says: "Yes I made the mistake of having unprotected sex in the house and I would not advocate that, but this nurse went on TV not representing the nurses, not representing Wycombe Hospital, not representing the NHS I am a human being.

"Nurses are human beings, and they make mistakes."

Makosi was reunited with her friends and family at her Amersham Hill home in High Wycombe on Wednesday night for the first time since she left the Big Brother House.

She adds: "I love Wycombe. Come on, I've lived there for six years. It's nice to walk into a shop and know who you're bumping into. Wycombe is nice and cosy.

"Wycombe is my home from home. I go to the movies there, I swim at the local leisure centre and I have a lovely flat there."

Although Makosi has done deals with a series of national newspapers, she says the Bucks Free Press is her favourite paper and one that she always buys.

She says: "I got my flat through the Bucks Free Press when it was advertised.

"It has so much stuff about Wycombe and the surrounding areas. In fact, if you go to my flat you will find copies of the Bucks Free Press there and I was hoping to do an interview with your paper."

Life after Big Brother has been pretty busy for Makosi so far, but she hopes to do some modelling for big brand names as well as train to be an actress. She posed for one of the Sunday papers over the weekend but she says she will not do any glamour or nude modelling as that is not for her.

But first and foremost Makosi is looking forward to coming home to High Wycombe to meet her fans and supporters.

"I love my fans and supporters and can't wait to meet them all. If anyone is to see me on the street, I don't want them to worry about coming up to me and we'll have pictures.

"In fact I will have my own camera on me as I want to have my picture taken with everyone, and I would like to do big stuff for Wycombe Hospital if they want me to."