DANCE fitness lovers Kate Shaw and Antonia Bradley are on a mission to get Farnham fitter.

Up until nine years ago, Kate was making the daily commute to London and working long hours while attempting to juggle the demands of a young family.

Irregular meals and no time for exercise were starting to take their toll and so Kate set about changing her lifestyle. What she didn’t realise was that improving her fitness would also lead to a career change.

She said: “To my surprise, I found that I loved dancing for fitness and because I felt so energised and so much healthier, I took the decision to train as a Zumba instructor. It was during one of my classes that Antonia’s passion and enthusiasm for the dancing caught my eye.

“I remember thinking to myself that she would make a great instructor and so I was thrilled when she agreed to join me and teach some of the classes.

“Since then, the business has gone from strength-to-strength and to better reflect the range of classes we now offer, we have recently renamed ourselves Farnham Dance Fitness.”

Antonia added: “We know from our own personal experiences that it can be difficult to find the necessary self-motivation to dig out the trainers and come along to a class. However, we also know that most people that come along to our classes come back and this is because we make sure the emphasis is on fun, so much so that people often do not realise how hard they are working.”

As well as improving the fitness levels of Farnham’s population, Kate and Antonia are active fundraisers. They have raised thousands of pounds for breast cancer and pancreatic cancer charities as well as many other local charities such as Challengers and Phyllis Tuckwell.

Their latest venture is a dance fitness weekend where people who love exercising to music will be able to try out 20 of the latest dance trends. The event is being held on Saturday, March 12, at the Old Thorns Hotel, Liphook.