A big charity Ballroom Glitz contest taking place in Leicester next month has been postponed because of the coronavirus.
Some of the region鈥檚 top business people had signed up for weeks of training to take part and help raise upwards of 拢50,000 for the county鈥檚 Loros hospice and Hope Against Cancer charities.
Hundreds of supporters had been due to attend the black tie dance-off at the King Power Stadium 鈥 home of Leicester City FC 鈥 on April 2.
Tables for the night 鈥 being held in partnership with Derbyshire-based Ultra Events 鈥 had sold out.
Fiona Debney, legal director at Gateley Legal in Leicester, who initially came up with the idea, said they had had no choice but to make the difficult decision to put it back to the autumn.
Describing how she felt she said: 鈥淕utted is nowhere near the mark.
鈥淚 am enormously proud of what we have accomplished so far.
鈥淭he dancers have all worked so hard and I couldn鈥檛 have asked for a more generous, funny - haha and peculiar - bunch of people to learn to dance with.
鈥淗owever, I am not prepared to put them or their loved ones at increased risk by carrying on and I want this event - when it happens - to be the best it can possibly be.
鈥淲e are hoping to reschedule it for the autumn and will work in conjunction with Ultra Events again who hold the monies from the ticket sales on behalf of the charities.鈥
Dancer Mike Pole, who runs financial management specialist Pole Arnold, in Leicestershire, said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a real shame because we were all working so hard.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been postponed until October and I want to carry on the lessons I鈥檝e got booked so we can then at least video a reasonably decent routine that we can pick up with again.
鈥淚 understand why the decision has been made, but it was quite a decent group of people and we鈥檝e been really enjoying it.鈥
Dominic Shaw, marketing director at Leicester design agency Creative Direction, was another of the contestants.
He said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 gutting because of all the hard work and commitment shown by everyone taking part.
鈥淭he night was meant to be a celebration of this and the money raised for two Leicester charities, and so understandably given the current circumstances it was impossible for the event to take place.鈥
Other dancers have signed up from firms including Howes Percival, NatWest, East Midlands Chamber and Santander.
Event sponsors include Gateley Legal, Cambridge and Counties Bank, Mattioli Woods and Quilter Cheviot.
