Nurse and former DWTS contestant Grainne Gallanagh reveals she has booked a ‘one-way ticket to Oz’

Grainne and her long-time boyfriend, Ryan, who are both from Buncrana in Co Donegal, will head off next month

Grainne Gallanagh

Eddie Rowley

She has juggled careers in the worlds of nursing, modelling and media — now Grainne Gallanagh is set for a new adventure Down Under.

The Donegal nurse, who has enjoyed a high-profile career in showbiz since being crowned Miss Universe Ireland in 2018, has purchased “a one-way ticket to Australia.”

A runner-up in the 2020 Dancing With The Stars and the 2021 Ireland’s Fittest Family, Grainne and her long-time boyfriend, Ryan – who are both from Buncrana, Co Donegal – will head off next month.

Grainne and Ryan are ready to hop on the plane

The nurse, who worked on the frontline in Letterkenny Hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic, said: “I’m nervous about heading into the unknown. It’s something that I’ve been talking about for years, but with Covid and all the rest I kept putting it off.

“Now I’ve decided to give it a go and see how I get on. I can always come home if it doesn’t work out, but at least I’ll have given it a go.

“These are the things you do when you are in your twenties and I feel that, with Covid, we lost those years and they passed before you knew it. I feel that our generation was robbed of a couple of years where we should have been enjoying our best life.”

Grainne is hoping to pick up nursing work in Australia

Grainne is currently working in a clinic in Derry, but is also a successful social media influencer.

“I’ve been kept busy between the clinic and media work online,” she says. “I’ve been lucky, so it will be sad to walk away from that.”

She admits that she’s taking a gamble.

“I have nothing lined up, so I don’t know what I’ll do. Everybody says how easy it is over there to get work, so I hope that something will come up. I’m sure there will be opportunities in nursing,” she said.