WITH her first rehearsal under her belt, Cheshire Constabulary’s Acting Chief Constable Janette McCormick has announced her dance partner and coach for the St Luke’s Hospice Strictly Learn to Dance fundraiser.

Janette will be taking to the Strictly floor with a fellow member of the emergency services, former ambulance staffer Kevin Shufflebottom, from Biddulph.

As well as social dancing, Kevin keeps fit by running. He is chair of Biddulph Running Club, race director for the Knype Pool 5 Mayors Charity Race and has been involved in the running scene for almost 30 years.

Teaching the contestants their moves is professional dancer-turned dance coach, Steve Brandreth. Steve teaches Ballroom, Latin and other current dance styles at a variety of venues in Cheshire and Staffordshire. He has over 25 years of experience, including dancing at international level with a successful career representing England abroad as a junior dancer.

Fresh from first rehearsal, Janette said: “Although aching in muscles I didn’t know I had, I thoroughly enjoyed our first rehearsal.

“Kevin and I are going to be working hard over the next couple of months to perfect our sequence. Kevin has more dance experience than I do but we’re both competitive so, as well as wanting to raise as much money as possible for St Luke’s, we’re in it to win it.”

Steve was certainly impressed with Janette’s first rehearsal.

He added: “As soon as we met Janette back in December we thought ‘hello, hello, hello, this lady means business’. Tall and classy, she looks the part for a quickstep, but can she dance?

“After just one week we now know, the answer. Oh blimey - yes she can. We gave her some pendulum swings, hops and locks out of curiosity and she simply took it in her stride and is gelling well with Kevin.”

Janette and Kevin will be performing in the grand final at Crewe Hall on Saturday, March 24.

Tickets can be ordered from St Luke’s Hospice website or by calling 01606 555832.

Anyone wishing to donate to Janette’s quest can do so at justgiving.com/fundraising/j-owen7