25. Gemma Fulbrook and Eileen Spracklen

Gemma and Eileen have been instrumental in raising in excess of £130,000 for Weldmar Hospicecare, through the charity’s popular Strictly Ballroom shows.

The first of these extravaganzas, each featuring sixteen local people who couple up and learn a dance routine from scratch to perform in front of a live audience, was in 2013 at Freshwater Beach Holiday Park, and the show later progressed to a new home of Weymouth Pavilion to accommodate the demand for tickets. There have been five shows to date, and Gemma and Eileen train all the dancers, and choreograph their routines. Two Junior Strictly events have also taken place, with local dance schools putting together their own group performances.

“I was approached by Matt Smith at Weldmar,” explains Eileen, “and taken all around the hospice and shown what it was all about, and then asked if we’d be interested in helping with this idea of a dance themed fundraising event.

“The first year, we didn’t realise how big it was going to be,” adds Gemma. “We thought it would be more like a dinner dance with some demonstrations, and then we found out that so many hundreds of tickets had been sold. We started thinking about how it could become a real show.”

Eileen says, “It was probably one of the best for atmosphere. Every time the curtain twitched the audience went bananas, waiting for the show to start! We moved to Weymouth Pavilion, not just to get a bigger audience but to put the dancers on a stage so all the audience could see their routines properly.”

As well as sharing their expertise in teaching the participants to dance, each Strictly show takes up around four and a half months of the year for the pair, so whilst the first two shows were in 2013 and 2014, it then became bi-annual and took an extended break during the Covid pandemic, returning in 2022. That show raised an incredible £42,000 for Weldmar. “One of the things we did that year was constantly remind the dancers about the importance of fundraising, as well learning the dances,” says Eileen, “and it got a little bit competitive between them, but in a nice way!”

“The audience love the shows too, “explains Gemma. “and they really get involved and they like to be quite vocal. When I go other dance shows it’s much quieter, whereas our crowd can get a bit rowdy, especially in the second half!”

“It’s a great charity that really needs the support and the funds, and we’re proud to have made these events happen,” says Eileen.