Wheelchair Dancer Hits the Floor in Blackpool

It’s always heartening to hear lottery winners helping others. It seems Chris and Colin Weir are hardly out of the news before they are helping another deserving cause. But they are not the only big winners to help. In amongst all the grand gestures, local help and big charities are the personal stories. In 2016, Lynne Groves won £1m on the EuroMillions millionaire maker. Since then, she has helped family and friends as much as she could. When she heard through the grapevine of a friend’s daughter fundraising for a wheelchair dancer who needed a special chair, she did not hesitate.

Wheelchair Dancer’s Blackpool Dream

At the time Lynne Groves heard about the wheelchair dancer fundraiser, it had raised around half the proceeds. Lynne was more than happy to make up the rest for the 27-year-old dancer Jane Hambling. It had always been a dream for Hambling to dance on the iconic ballroom dance floor in Blackpool. However, without the right equipment in the form of a specially adapted sports wheelchair designed for the purpose of ballroom dancing, it was not going to happen. That was until Groves stepped in and made it happen. Commenting after the event, Hambling said that if it wasn’t for her mother encouraging her to find a hobby, she might never have become a wheelchair dancer.

The problem was that her electric wheelchair wasn’t suitable for dancing. As her technique and abilities improved, the chair became a hindrance. That was when the fundraiser began, the find the cash for a sports model for the wheelchair dancer. Donors included friends and family, a local restaurant and, of course, Lynne Groves. Hambling is determined to keep improving and is taking professional lessons. But her ambition does not stop there. Once she is fully settled with her new wheelchair, the aim is to compete at national and then international level.