'Rose was the first person I saw on TV that was similar to me...' Tasha Ghouri owes her TV career to Rose Ayling-Ellis
Tasha Ghouri - who was born deaf and had a cochlear implant when she was five years old to help her hear - struggled to be confident with her disability until she saw deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis win Strictly Come Dancing in 2021.
Rose Ayling-Ellis gave Tasha Ghouri the "confidence" to do Love Island.
The 26-year-old TV personality had a cochlear implant - a small electronic device that helps her to hear - when she was five years old because she was born deaf.
She struggled with her confidence because of the implant - causing Tasha to initially fear doing the ITV2 dating show in 2022 - because she had no one around her in a similar situation.
But after seeing Rose, 30 - who is deaf - win BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing with her professional dance partner Giovanni Pernice, 34, in 2021, Tasha realised her disability does not define her and did not let it stop her from doing Love Island.
Tasha - who shot to fame after being the first deaf islander and finished in fourth place with her ex-partner Andrew Le Page, 30 - is quoted by the Daily Mirror newspaper as saying: "Rose was the first person I saw on TV that was similar to me.
"I thought that was amazing and seeing her on Strictly gave me the confidence to do Love Island."
Despite more TV shows signing disabled celebrities to take part in programmes, including former Paralympic athletics sprinter Libby Clegg, 35 - who is blind - doing ITV1's Dancing on Ice in 2020, Tasha feels there is still not enough representation on screens.
She added: "There is such a lack of representation on TV.
"There is still negativity around cochlear implants and deafness. It is still overlooked but there is still a long way to go, not just with deafness but with any kind of disability.
"I want to see more of it on TV to normalise it."
Tasha - who split from Andrew in January after a three-year romance - did Strictly in 2024, and she helped a young girl with her cochlear implant after the youngster saw the star and her professional dance partner Aljaž Škorjanec, 35, grace the ballroom floor.
The TV personality - who lost out to comedian Chris McCausland, 48, and his professional dance partner Dianne Buswell, 36, in lifting the coveted Glitterball trophy - said: "People were sending drawings in of how they were decorating their cochlear implants and that is the power of representation.
"I got a message from a six-year-old after I did Strictly saying that I had helped her with her cochlear implant, so that is why it is incredible to do things like that."
