Karen Hardy held a free one-off dance class in London’s Hyde Park on Tuesday (27.09.16) to help beat breast cancer.
The 46-year-old professional ballroom dancer has teamed up with Breast Cancer Now and Marks and Spencer for their new Spark Something Good campaign, which encourages people to get moving, by throwing a special Salsa session.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz after the dance class, she said: "It was brilliant; it was surreal in the middle of Hyde Park with all these amazing, inspiring women. You can dance anywhere; you don’t even need a ballroom."
The former ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ star was blown away by the amount of people who flocked to her ‘Move It in the Park’ class and she’d love to arrange another session in the future to help raise more awareness for the charity.
She explained: "I’d definitely love to do another class. They were an incredible crowd and the bosses in the background were very happy. It’s very special. I was approached about a month ago, I was just honoured to be chosen really."
Karen was inspired to get involved in the campaign when Breast Cancer Now released a new statistic claiming women who are active for 30 minutes a day can cut their risk of developing breast cancer by at least 20 per cent
Karen said: "Dancing and going to the gym are obvious ways of keeping fit, however there are so many activities that can get your heart rate up – many of which you’re probably already doing on a weekly basis. Even simple chores like vacuuming the house or doing the gardening can make a difference. I was definitely surprised that being active can have that much of an impact on the risk of getting breast cancer and what is great is that by being more conscious in what you do daily you’ll be able to see just how easy it is to hit the 30 minute target."
Marks and Spencer will be donating 10 per cent of all women’s fitness clothing and sports bra sales to the charity during Breast Cancer Awareness Month this October.
The retailer and Breast Cancer Now aim to raise £13 million over the next five years in a bid to prevent 9,000 cases of breast cancer a year by 2025.
Karen Hardy held free dance class to beat breast cancer
