As Ellie Goldstein prepares to make her Strictly Come Dancing debut this weekend, the 22-year-old model and trailblazer is continuing to defy the odds.
Long before Ellie made history as the first model with Down’s syndrome to front campaigns for Gucci and appear on the cover of Vogue, her life began with a brutal prognosis.
“When Ellie was born, we were shocked to learn she had Down’s syndrome,” her mother, Yvonne Goldstein, told Vogue. “The doctors said she would never walk or talk, and a nurse suggested we might want to leave her at the hospital.”
But Ellie had other plans.
Ellie Goldstein had heart surgery as a baby
In addition to her Down’s syndrome diagnosis, Ellie was born with multiple holes in her heart. This is a common but serious complication affecting up to 50% of babies with Down’s syndrome.
At just five months old, Ellie underwent a 10-hour open-heart surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital to repair her tiny heart. The odds were frighteningly slim.
“I’ll never forget the sensation of the blood draining from my body when I had to sign the consent forms. The risks to Ellie’s life were so high. But even higher if she didn’t have surgery,” Yvonne recalled.
Yvonne described pacing the streets of London for hours with Ellie’s father, Mark, as they waited for the surgery to finish.
She recalled that they were too overwhelmed with worry “to say even one word to one another”.
Surgery struggles
During the operation, surgeons struggled to restart Ellie’s heart after coming off bypass. Her condition remained critical for the next 48 hours. Ellie spent 10 days in intensive care, followed by another week in a high dependency unit. But she pulled through.
And, after three weeks, her parents were able to take her home. Yvonne commented that Ellie’s “cheeky and determined personality began to shine through”.
Doctors had predicted Ellie might never reach key developmental milestones. Instead, she took her first steps at 18 months, was speaking by age three, and was reading before starting school. Ellie remained in a mainstream school until exams, when she moved to a specialist school.
Ellie on Strictly
Last weekend, the star made her debut on Strictly during the pre-recorded live show. In the show, it was revealed that she is to be dancing with Vito Coppola this series.
“I’m literally over the moon,” Ellie said about being paired with Vito. “I love him so much and I want to dance with him to every dance in the world,” she then added.
It’s a full circle moment for Ellie, who expressed a desire to be on Strictly during her interview with the BBC in 2023.
“My absolute favourite thing in the world is dancing. One day I would love to be on Strictly Come Dancing. I went to watch it being filmed a few weeks ago, but I didn’t want to be in the audience, I wanted to be on the dancefloor!” she said.
And now she is!
Catch Ellie on Strictly tonight (Saturday, September 27) at 6.55pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
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