Salsa Fundraising Night for the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust!

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Easter Monday - 24 March - Lavinia's aunty and uncle hosted a Salsa Night to help raise both awareness of ectopic pregnancy and funds for the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust. All proceeds from the night will be going to the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust - £270 has been raised to date.

Guests were invited to a Salsa night where there was the opportunity to learn and improve their salsa dancing. There was an extremely good turn out, about 50 people attended the evening. The night was opened up with a speech by Lavinia's aunty and uncle, thanking everyone for attending the event in aide of the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust and then this was followed by a song beautifully sang by one of Lavinia's aunty and uncle's friends.

SALSA!! It was then time for the salsa classes to begin. People split off into the beginners and improvers/advanced groups according to their abilities. We had done some salsa dancing before, but we thought it best to head into the beginners class, because we were both feeling very rusty. We had a great time re-learning the 'Mambo' - we can still hear the one, two, three, five, six, seven, one, two, three, five, six, seven. We were very impressed when we looked across to the improvers/advanced class being taught by Lavinia's aunty and uncle, as couples twirled and twisted their way around the dance floor.

We were all then treated to a dance by an excellent professional dance group - it looked very much like the Tango we had seen in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We had tried to learn a bit of Tango whilst in Buenos Aires, but with about 100 people packed into a room only for about 20 people!, progress was very slow, as we constantly bumped and knocked into other couples on the dance floor. Very amusing though!

Next there was a very exciting opportunity to learn some Cuban salsa dancing. We were in a circle, man, woman, man, woman and to learn the moves, you had to follow what the main teacher Paulous from SalsaFlava was doing. Easier said than done. Lavinia was flung from one man to the next...part of the dance routine is where the men, pass the women onto the next man in the circle....and so on and so on... There was lots of shouting of 'Arriba!' 'Abajo!' and 'Hola!' It was very energetic and lots of fun!

Once everyone had a chance to catch their breath, the floor was passed over to us. Lavinia briefly spoke about how ectopic pregnancy had affected our lives, the condition ectopic pregnancy, the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust and their hard work to support women and their families, educate the general public and the medical profession, raise awareness of the condition and help to prevent unnecessary deaths. Steve then spoke about the importance of fundraising for the charity and also about our exciting upcoming fundraising hike along the Pennine Way for the Trust. We understand that some people found the talk very moving.

With the talk over, it was time for the much anticipated results of the silent auction and the raffle - which were to help raise more funds for the charity. Some of the fantastic prizes were 'a romantic meal for two at a Carribean restaurant', 'an indulgent head, shoulder and neck massage', 'one to one singing lessons' , of course 'some salsa lessons!' and last but not least, some chocolate bunny Easter eggs - given that it was Easter Monday. The prizes were donated by local businesses; for which we are both extremely grateful. After the winners were announced by Lavinia and Steve, the dance floor was opened for freestyle salsa dancing until midnight.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and held for such a well deserving cause. We want to thank Lavinia's aunt and uncle again from the bottom of our heart's for arranging this fundraising night for the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust and showing us so much support following our traumatic experiences. THANK YOU BOTH SO MUCH!! Thank you also to Paulette, Shanice and Lavinia's mum for greeting guests and collecting money at the door, and also to everyone who ventured out to attend the evening. Your support is much appreciated and means so much to us both. Lav and Steve xxx

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Photos

Steve and Lav at Salsa night for the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust
We felt very touched that Lav's aunty and uncle were holding a Salsa Fundraising Night to raise money for the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust.

Lav announces the winner of the silent auction...an indulgent head, shoulder and neck massage!
With the help of Lav's aunty and uncle.