Perfect ten for Strictly Northampton as dance show raises nearly £43,000 for Cynthia Spencer Hospice

Andrzej and Jo Mialkowski, from Step by Step Dance School, who organise ‘Strictly Northampton’, presented the cheque to John Helm, fundraising manager at Cynthia Spencer Hospice, at a special dance awards event in Wootton Community and Sports Centre on Friday night.

This vast sum was raised by contestants of Strictly Northampton 2018 and from donations from the audience who text voted on the night of the show.

John Helm, Cynthia Spencer Hospice fundraising manager, revealed at the dance event, that the money would help fund new Wellbeing services launched on Monday.

He said:” On Monday we will be launching our new Wellbeing service, which helps people with life limiting illnesses to live their life as fully as possible.

"We are increasing our day services from two to five days and the money raised from Strictly Northampton will be helping fund this initiative. Our goal is to improve the quality of people’s lives with our rehabilitative palliative care.

"New workshops have been planned around breathlessness, sleeplessness, pain relief and mobility, which will include seated Thai Chi workshops, gym buddies and a new walking group. We want to attract new patients to our services.

"We wouldn’t be able to extend our services without events like Strictly Northampton and the phenomenal amount of money everyone has raised.”

He was also delighted that Cynthia Spencer Hospice was nominated as the chosen charity for next year’s Strictly Northampton.

Event organiser Andrzej Mialkowski said he was absolutely thrilled with the success of last year’s show.

He said: “This was an amazing show which received fantastic feedback and beat our previous fundraising total. Every year we work hard to put on a good show that the audience will enjoy and we pulled it off again. We beat our fundraising target of £40,000 and this was a result of massive effort from everybody who worked tirelessly on the event.”

“More than £40,000 raised – we can’t wait to see what our 2019 show has in store!” he added.

Strictly Northampton 2019 will be launched on May 19, 2019.