Claire House Children’s Hospice held its annual Strictly competition on Saturday at The Rum Warehouse, Liverpool, raising over £37,000.
The 2022 Glitterball trophy was won by Lorna Bent from Warrington, who danced the Samba with professional dance partner Chris Millward from Cadmans Dance Centre.
Lorna, along with six other amateur dancers who trained and fundraised to take part, should have danced in 2020, but the annual event was postponed twice because of Covid.
Lorna said: “After first signing up in 2020, it was great to finally take to the dancefloor. I loved learning to dance the Samba with Chris and performing on the night in front of everyone was just a dream.
“Thank you for such a great opportunity, raising money for a wonderful charity and meeting lovely friends along the way.”
Claire House does Strictly began in 2015 and has raised around £210,000 for the charity over the last seven years.
Event Fundraiser Rachel Handley said: “The money that we raise at events like this is vital in keeping the doors to Claire House open, so it is amazing to finally be back after a two year wait. Every amateur dancer trained so hard and was so incredible on the night – we just want to say thank you to all of the dancers and Cadmans Dance Centre, and to everyone who attended too.
“It was a great evening, hosted by Claire Simmo, and we even had Ray Quinn attend to sing and judge our dancers too. The judges and audience loved Lorna’s Samba and she was a worthy winner of Claire House does Strictly.”
The event was sponsored by HSBC.
Rachel added: “Without the support of local companies such as HSBC, we wouldn’t be able to organise events like Claire House does Strictly. We want to thank Julie Davies, Local Director, and the team at HSBC for all their support and for volunteering on the night too.”
