Dance Fever ‘14 set to make big charity impact

Members of the Sunset Strippers rounded off a fantastic night of entertainment at Dance Fever 2011 on Friday night. INLV4211-525KDR

The 2014 Dance Fever, which will support a total of seven charities, recently kicked off with a friendly football match between a select fundraising team and a Derry City FC Legends team at Drummond Cricket Club just outside Limavady.

Aside from the main dance event, a quiz night, a coffee morning, a Mr and Mrs night, flag days and even a eight-hour cycling challenge are still to come.

Angela Miller-Linton, one of the people behind the steadily growing annual charity programme, told the Sentinel that since the first ever event in 2011, Dance Fever has raised “about £65,000 so far”.

She said: “This will be the fourth year of it. It started after we had been to a similar event in Coleraine and we decided to do something similar ourselves for charity in Limavady.

“It’s been about £15,000 per year so far and we are hoping we can keep that up this year. In terms of the charities we are helping, they are Diabetes UK, Action Duchenne, Motor Neurones, the Little Princess Trust, Huntingtons Disease, the Foyle Hospice and the Children’s Heartbeat Trust.

“The way we decided the charities, I always think it is sort of funny the way things work out, it has been a case of a friend of a friend and we’re always happy to help out any way we can.

“We had our launch on Wednesday, August 20th, and we had all the fundraising teams there to explain the theme and we handed out sponsor sheets and things like that. We also had some of the charities there on the day to explain the work.

“It’s been great to support the charities with the money we raise but I know a few of them aren’t that well known so it is good to be able to help raise awareness as well as the money.”

Diabetes UK are the UK’s leading diabetes charity. Action Duchenne are a charity for the families of children diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, who raise money for research. The Motor Neurone Disease Association fund care, campaigning and research.

The Little Princess Trust provide real-hair wigs, free of charge, to boys and girls across the UK and Ireland that have lost their own hair through cancer treatment. The Huntington’s Disease Association provide support to families affected by the condition. Foyle Hospice provides palliative care. The Children’s Heartbeat Trust work for children with heart disease and their families.