A PARTIALLY deaf eight-year-old with a special talent for dancing will be able to perform with a major ballet company thanks to the generosity of AFC Bournemouth players.

Beth Orchard, of Aspen Gardens, Rossmore has been dancing since the age of 19-months and has been told by just about everyone who sees her that she has enormous talent.

Beth, a pupil at St Joseph's Roman Catholic Combined School, plans to audition for the Royal Ballet company in May and has landed herself a part in the English Youth Ballet's production of Sleeping Beauty at the Pavilion in Bournemouth in March.

But her mother, Beccie, 34, is a single mum with three other daughters - Siobhan, 13, Gina, five, and Chloe, three, to bring up. She had to pay £275 by Monday to secure Beth's place in Sleeping Beauty, which she could not afford.

So she approached Bournemouth AFC's striker Steve Fletcher to ask if he could help with sponsorship. His daughter, Danni, seven, is Beth's best friend at the dance school, Andrea Knowles Academy of Dance and Drama.

Steve said: "There wasn't time to sort out sponsorship so I spoke to the boys and they all dug in their pockets to make a donation.

"I wanted to do what I can. I've seen the girl and she's outstanding. She may only get this one opportunity and I didn't want it to pass her by - the opportunity could have so easily passed me by with football."

Beccie said: "Without this money she couldn't do the show. We are so grateful.

"Everyone who sees her dance says she's got natural talent. She dances wherever there is music - the street, the supermarket."

Beth has had glue ear since three months old. She has had operations, and will go through more in March. Because she is hard of hearing she dances to the feel of the music through the floor.

First published: December 22