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Academy team to dance Race for Life
Despite being on maternity leave, Head of Dance at the Folkestone Academy Patricia Cullen has been busy organising a group of dancers including teachers and students, to take part in the Race for Life, by dancing the whole course.
The decision came from Patricia’s own story: “It was about a month ago that my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer and I wanted to show my support for her and once I’d mentioned it to my team at the Academy, they all wanted to support me. The dance department are my little family so we got together and decided we were going to enter the 5k Race for Life that’s happening in Folkestone. And obviously they all know of someone who’s had cancer so they really want to support the cause. ”
Not taking part in the traditional sense, where ladies and girls of all ages walk, jog or run the race, the dance team will be taking their skills through the whole course: “We want to dance the whole race, so it will probably take us a good hour but we want to keep up the energy and the pace and we’ll hopefully be playing some music too to keep us going, just to show lots of the fun and energy of our dance department.
“I’ve been asking the students to choreograph traveling routines, and they have actually had to travel around in circles in the studio to get that.”
There will be 12 dancers altogether on the day including teachers and students and Patricia is also adding something more personal to the fundraising: “My whole life I have always had very very long brown hair and I’m turning 30 this year and I wanted to do something extreme and something memorable, so I wanted to cut off all my hair and I wanted to donate it to the Little Princess Trust who make wigs for children with cancer.”
By donating hair it means the wigs can be made completely free of charge, the trust require at least 7 inches of hair: “They have to blend it with at least 5 other hair donations just to make one wig, that’s why it’s so important that they get those donations.”

Folkestone Race for Life for Cancer Research starts at the Metropole Hotel on The Leas. 11am Sunday 14 June.
Head of Dance @ The Folkestone Academy Patricia Cullen (centre) will also cut off her hair
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