It is a brave move to take that step and completely change career but to take the plunge by appearing on a national television programme takes real guts.
But that is exactly what Ramsey woman Roisin Quinn has done as she embarks on a new path to becoming an interior designer. She will be one of ten contestants battling it out to bag a lucrative contract on the BBC One show Interior Design Masters next week.
Now living in Liverpool, Roisin moved to the Isle of Man from Ireland when she was nine years old and went to Ramsey Grammar School.
Unsure of what she wanted to do, Roisin spent three years at a US summer camp where she met her now husband, before the couple went travelling for two years.
They moved to Liverpool and she joined the travel company who sent her to the summer camp in the US.
It was only when she moved back to the island just before the Covid pandemic struck that she fell in love with interior design.
‘My parents were building a house called Primrose Lodge on the Ramsey coast roadand I found myself getting into interior design,’ she explained.
‘I then started up my own Instagram page documenting it. Everyone was saying I should pursue interior design, even my manger at the travel company.
‘Had I not come back to the island during lockdown I would never have know my passion for interior design.’
Roisin returned to Liverpool and she and her partner got married in October 2022. She then decided to study interior design at university in Salford. But her decision to apply to be on Interior Design Masters changed all that.
‘I applied to go on the show but I didn’t make that much effort as I didn’t expect to be successful,’ Roisin said.
‘I am a big fan of the programme and people kept telling me to apply. I felt I had nothing to lose.
‘When I was accepted onto the show I decided I did not need a degree. It is not something you can really train for, it is about natural flare. They only training you need is learning computer design which I felt I could do myself.
‘Thereis no better first step of your career than being on a BBC One show! This is the push I need.’
The show, hosted by Alan Carr, starts with ten people and each week one has to leave the show until finally the winner is handed a life-changing contract. Roisin cannot reveal how she did but she says being on the show benefitted everyone.
‘All the contestants have become best mates and we will be watching the first episode together,’ she said. ‘I am very nervous to see how I come over on television but it has been a springboard for me.
My family have been so supportive and my dad was in hospital when we were filiming so it was a bittersweet year. He is okay now. They are super proud and will be watching. My sister is travelling back to the island to watch it with the family.
The first episode of Interior Design Masters will be aired on BBC One on Tuesday, March 12 at 8pm.
To find Roisin on Instagram search @roisinquinn.