Strictly St. Rocco’s 2018, sponsored by Rybrook Jaguar, burst onto the dance floor at the Mere Golf Resort & Spa last Sunday evening with 10 brave amateur dancers putting their best foot forward with their professional partners from Cadmans Dance Centre in front of 400 guests to raise much needed funds to support patient care at our hospice.

The volunteer dancers have been hard at work over the last few months, not only perfecting their routines, but raising vital sponsorship to help St. Rocco’s to continue to deliver its care. Jan Costello, one of our patients at St. Rocco’s Vitality Centre shared with guests the difference that the care she has received has made to her. By the end of the evening over £61,000 had been raised through the dancers’ fundraising efforts and through the generosity of guests on the night.

The standard of the dancing this year was as high as ever and certainly impressed the four judges, Victoria Bennett, Principal of Cadmans, Ian Mackinnon, patron of St. Rocco’s and previous Strictly St. Rocco’s dancer, Karen Speers, principal of AT Dance and Ralph Casson, actor and dancer. This year two contestants, Andrea Hildrup dancing the quickstep and Liz Williamson dancing the Paso Doble both scored 4 perfect tens.

Once the audience votes had been combined with the judges scores it was Liz and her partner Lewis Crowder, who were crowned Strictly St. Rocco’s 2018 champions, with Emile Kreisler and his dance partner Amy Hancock runners up with their jive.

And then it was over to the audience as Chris Millward and Victoria Bennett from Cadmans led the traditional mass merengue before everyone danced the night away to the sound of the Chris O’Grady Roadshow.

“This is the sixth year of Strictly St. Rocco’s and we are thrilled to have raised over £61,000 to help our patients and families,” said Rachel Ingham, Fundraising Manager for St. Rocco’s.

“Our dancers have worked so hard to master their dances and to raise an incredible amount of sponsorship. They have been so supportive of each other and we couldn’t be more proud of every one of them. Without people in the Warrington community coming together to support our patients and families in ways like this we simply would not be able to continue to deliver our care. We’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to the success of this year’s event.”

Thoughts are already turning to Strictly St. Rocco’s 2019 so keep an eye out to see who will be in next year’s Strictly spotlight!

More pictures will appear on our Flickr feed soon.