'Not So Strictly Come Dancing' - what a night!

SAFE@LAST is celebrating after one of our fundraising events, held last Friday 15th January at the Sheffield City Hall, was a big success.

The ‘Not So Strictly Come Dancing’ event, the second of its kind, saw ten couples undergo weeks of training to perform two dances in front of over 400 people and four judges.

Judging the dancers were South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable and SAFE@LAST Patron Med Hughes, International ballroom judge and father of Darren Bennett from BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing Tony Bennett, FA referee Howard Webb and SAFE@LAST volunteer and lover of all things Strictly Sue Norton!

All couples performed a Jive and a Quickstep.  They received comments and scores from the judges and the public voted by putting money in the bucket of their favourite couple.  The top three dancers then performed again before the judges had the unenviable task of sending one couple home.  The finalists then danced for the last time before the public voted for their winner.

Jill Faulkner and Phil Reed were the lucky couple to walk away with the shiny glitter ball trophy after impressing both the judges and the public with their impressive dance skills.

Hilary Massarella, SAFE@LAST Founder Trustee said; “A huge thank you to every one of the BRILLIANT dancers whose commitment to training, to each other, and to raising funds through sponsorship has been phenomenal. All of this amazing effort has resulted in one of the most successful events that we have ever done and this has come at a perfect time. SAFE@LAST is currently half way through the financial year and, largely because of external factors, fundraising budgets had fallen short on almost every event in this first half, ‘Not so Strictly Come Dancing’ should get us right back on track and so we are all extremely grateful.”

Winner Jill Faulkner said; “Taking part in ‘Not So Strictly Come Dancing’ for me was an easy decision, not just for the obvious reason of helping a fantastic cause, SAFE@LAST, but it was an opportunity of a lifetime for me to learn to dance.  From day one and after being introduced to my partner Phil and the others I was hooked.  The final evening was amazing; I will hold this experience (and the glitter ball) in my memories forever.  I just want to keeeeep dancing!” her partner PC Phil Reed added "I've never done any dancing before, but I've now been completely bitten by the bug. I absolutely love it and I'm definitely going to keep dancing. We had a brilliant night and with the amount that was raised, there were really winners all round."