My name’s Ben Hammond and I’m a 35 year-old tutu-wearing teacher from London. I’m currently back in training to finally complete the world first-ever dance across Britain, every step of the 1300 miles from John o’Groats to Land’s End, in July. It’s a charity challenge that had to be postponed in October last year after I was run over in a hit and run by a drunk driver just 200 miles from the finish.
Eight years ago I taught for a year in a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border, and the experience changed my life. On returning home I was determined to use my freedom to help those in Burma get theirs, and spread the word as far and wide as I could – setting up educational charity LearnBurma in the process. Using dance as a symbol of that freedom, I then set about getting anyone and everyone to be free to dance for Burma.
First off I needed to test out whether the people of Britain would be free to dance with me for the cause, by dancing badly in pyjamas with my trusty sign beside a famous landmark or two…
Knowing I had to improve my feet of flames just a little, I then visited dance classes, groups and schools around London for some serious help…
Then came the time to become the first person to ever dance every step of the London Marathon (wait for it)…
And a 72-hour dance through the Glastonbury festival. Here’s our promo video…
And these are the final few exhausted-but-feeling-slightly-epic moments…
And with the training over it was time for the real thing: to set a world record for the world’s longest ever dance: 135 hours straight, in central London. Everyone was invited…
Here’s the final few hours…
And the moment (caught by an onlooker) I danced into the record books, with the help of 7,000 or so…
And here’s the full story in pictures…
Next up it was time to take the message nationwide with a dance across the entire country, top to bottom…
Here’s my final promo film, made in one mad weekend dash across England, Scotland and Wales…
And this shows you just how far I’ve danced so far. To be continued…
It’s been an incredible journey. Thanks to everyone who’s joined in or supported me along the way. If you haven’t already please consider sponsoring my final 300 miles of dodgy dancing, or you could always join me this summer’s finale!
