It was time to dust of the dance shoes, add some glitz and aim for the glitter ball trophy at this year’s LMSS and Artefacts Strictly Come Dancing competition, all in aid of charitable causes local to Liverpool.
Held in the splendour of St George’s Hall, the event showcased a live band, spectacular dancing and an impressive panel of judges. Impressively, the societies helped raise over £2000 for local charities, including Claire House Children's Hospice and KIND Liverpool.
LMSS President, Ella Bleasdale, and Artefacts President Rachael Foreman, took a moment to reflect on the spectacular event and what the fundraising efforts mean to them.
“Strictly preparation began last November when we selected and paired up our professionals and celebrities. Since then, our couples and opening dancers began their rehearsals which, judging from the standard of the routines on the night, went really well. All the couples gelled together and there were lots of new friendships formed which made the dances even more special to watch.
Conor and Aidan, this year's LMSS Charity Reps, had their tuxes at the ready and spent hours watching Claudia Winkleman and Tess Daley to perfect their presenting skills. The wonderful artefacts band were working hard behind the scenes to bring the event to life, as well as our professional dancers who were getting our celebrities into shape.
“This is one of our favourite events in the LMSS calendar, attended every year by students, alumni, family and friends, it’s always an amazing atmosphere and this year didn’t disappoint.”
Our six dancing couples were: James Evennett-Bowker and Aimee Hairon; Aaron Gywynne and Cora Edwards; Rhys Cockburn and Maya Nelson; Oscar Atkinson and Lucy Secker; Jaqui Howard and Beth Balaam; George Gordon and Rhianne March.
Winner Oscar Atkinson alongside dancers Aimee Harion & Maya Nelson
Alongside our star-studded dancers were four well known faces making up our judging panel: Professor Scott (Dean of the School of Medicine); Justin Shanahan (Clinical Skills Director); Ella Bleasdale (LMSS President); Rachael Foreman and Helen Nixon (Artefacts Presidents).
Judges and charity reps
All 6 performances from our couples were outstanding, making it so difficult for our judging panel to score them apart! Every single dancer showed so much enthusiasm and it was great to see how much fun they were having out there on the dance floor. The crowd were so supportive, cheering along each of our contestants.
“We had over 270 people in attendance, making this one of our most popular Strictly nights since we first started the event!”
Winners Oscar and Lucy dancing their jive
Although all dancers were completely deserving of the win, only one couple could be crowned the LMSS Strictly Champions 2024. This year the glitter ball trophy went to Oscar Atkinson and Lucy Secker for their exciting, fast-paced jive to ‘Runaway Baby’, which scored them 50 (top marks!) from the judges and had the crowd going wild – even a standing ovation following their winning performance.
Winners Lucy and Oscar
This is Oscar’s final year here at Liverpool Medical School, and what a way to end five fantastic years. Our professional dancer Lucy should be so proud of all her teaching efforts as their hard work paid off!
“We had the most amazing night in St George’s Hall, raising money for two incredible causes. We’ve always loved strictly come dancing and this was certainly a night to remember.”
"We’d like to thank our incredible Artefacts band who performed live music for every dance and entertainment piece, including a little sing-along party at the end of the show with classics including 'Uptown Girl'.
We also want to say a huge congratulations to LMSS Charity Reps Aidan Hegarty and Conor Fogarty who organised and ran this evening. It’s not an easy task to host in front of such a big crowd but they did it with grace, plenty of humour and a sprinkle of Irish charm.
This is their second charity event of the year, after our Charity Hike in September, raising money for Claire House Hospice & KIND Liverpool. On the night we had two inspirational and emotional speeches from these charities who expressed how extremely grateful they are for everything the society gives to them.
“The charity representative spoke about the work they do and how the money raised would be used, which touched everybody and reminded us of the whole reason we were all there.”
A representative from Claire House even told us that “everyone knows about the medics” as this event and all the hard work we do is always spoken about within their charity.
A staggering £2359.43 was raised for charity, thanks to the generosity of all our guests. This takes this year's charity total to almost £10,000 - an utterly incredible achievement for Aidan & Conor who are only in their third year here at Liverpool!
The hard work doesn’t stop here though, with one more charity event to be hosted after Easter - so keep your eyes peeled for updates.”
Discover More
- Stay up to date with upcoming performances from the talented Artefacts (link)
- Get involved with fantastic charitable opportunities through LMSS Charities (link)