Wolverhampton mum in Ms Great Britain finals dreams of setting up centre for disabled children
A 37-year-old Wolverhampton mother is competing to be crowned Ms Great Britain this evening in the hopes it will enable her to open new facilities for disabled children in the city.
Asha Taak, from Wednesfield, is a single mother to eight-year-old son, Karan Taak, who is a pupil at Tettenhall Wood School
Karan has autism and is also non-verbal, and Asha has learned first-hand how limited support is for families of disabled children.
On Friday night, Asha is competing in the Ms Great Britain finals in the hope of using the title to advocate for young people with disabilities.
The early careers partner told the Express & Star: "Ms Great Britain is a big thing. I've never done anything like this before.
"I'm doing this for a good cause. You don't get much help when you have a disabled child, and especially as I'm a single parent, I do it all on my own.
"It's really hard to get childcare for disabled children, or even support from social services. It's so hard to find help and I want to tackle this issue."
Asha elaborated: "I want to build a centre in Wolverhampton where disabled children and young people can have a safe place after school or during holidays and parents can have some respite.
"Because there's nowhere in Wolverhampton where parents with disabled children can really play after school while parents are still working. The provision is so limited. There's nowhere in UK that does this.
"I also want the charity to be able to help young people with disabilities to get mentored by organisations so they can help them into work, which no one is doing currently."
During her Ms Great Britain campaign, Asha has advocated for the support of disabled children by launching a podcast as well as doing radio interviews and public speeches.
She has continuously praised Tettenhall Wood School throughout the process, saying: "If we didn't have that school, we wouldn't have anywhere near as much support. We wouldn't know where to find support."
And while Asha is doing all of this for her son, Karan sadly doesn't understand what his mother is doing for him.
Asha said: "Karan doesn't actually know that I'm competing. Because he's non-verbal, he doesn't understand what I'm doing for him. He can't say 'Mum' and it's heartbreaking.
"One day I hope he'll eventually understand what I'm doing for him."
Asha will find out this evening if she has been successful in her bid to become Ms Great Britain.
And while many people will have preconceptions of beauty pageants and the impact it has on women, Asha says the experience has been empowering for the contestants.
"It's not like in the films, like Miss Congeniality. It's all about female empowerment. It's a great sisterhood. We support each other, and help each other to win." Miss Great Britain is for women aged between 18 and 30, while Ms Great Britain is open to women aged between 31 and 44.
