Champion Teacher

Jul 13 2008 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

TWINKLE-TOED Audrey Lloyd was dancing on air when her name was read aloud as the winner of our Champion Teacher award.

Audrey of Middlesbrough has been holding dance classes at the Whale Hill Community Centre for more than 22 years and taught students of all ages, from five to 85 . . . and that’s after having a hip replacement!

Audrey, now 72, has been teaching for 40 years and hundreds of people have passed through her doors in that time. She’s even given jive lessons to the late Redcar and Cleveland MP Mo Mowlam.

Her passion for dance was clear to everyone at the awards ceremony, as the audience watched a video showing her teaching a group of children. Yet Audrey says it’s her love of people that makes taking the classes such a joy.

Clutching her trophy, Audrey came away from the stage beaming with joy and said: “Well that was a shock. I’m speechless! Getting this award makes me feel very humble and it is so very gratifying.

“I’ve been teaching dance on a voluntary basis for many years and this makes it all worthwhile. It makes me feel appreciated.”

Dance should be for all, in Audrey’s opinion, so she often applies for grants to ensure every child has dance shoes and dresses when trying for their medals.

Audrey, who was nominated by her proud granddaughter Lyndsey Peters, was determined to have a fantastic night at our glittering ceremony, and travelled to the event with her family in a stretch limousine.

She said: “We all came in a limo so I think I’ll treat everyone by paying for it with my prize money, and I’ll also treat the children. We’re all going on holiday together soon, so if there’s any money left I’ll hopefully be able to buy myself a drink or two.”

Runners-up in our Champion Teacher category, which was sponsored by EDF Energy, were Michael McClean and Mark Paterson.

Michael told us through his video how a neck injury forced him to quit playing rugby nine years ago . . . but he found himself back in the scrum when his two young sons wanted to take up the sport a few years later.

Michael, 40, from Annitsford, Northumberland, enrolled Andrew, 16, and Joseph, 14, at his old club — Seghill Rugby Club — and ended up rejoining too . . . as a youth coach.

Five years on, he coaches the under-16s at regular training sessions ahead of their weekly matches and takes on all this responsibility while caring for his disabled wife Edna, two teenage boys and his mother, who has inoperable cancer.

Fellow runner-up Mark Paterson is also heavily involved in teaching sport . . . even though he is registered disabled.

Mark, 40, from Skelton, Teesside, is now an Eighth Dan Shihan or master in Aikijujitsu, having first learned the martial art growing up in Malaysia.

The married dad-of-one has suffered from macular dystrophy since birth and has only five per cent vision, yet he still manages to teach his students complicated moves.