Housemates raise £6,000 for domestic abuse charity with 26-hour disco

Three housemates spent 26 hours dancing in their basement and raised more than £6,000 for a women’s aid charity.

Lucy Furneaux, 25, Grace Marjot, 24, and Nathalie Dixon Young, 24 were inspired by the 2.6 challenges that took place in lieu of the London Marathon.

Natalie said: “2.6 hours of dancing didn’t seem like enough of a challenge so we went fully the other way.”

Grace, a trauma nurse, said raising money for a domestic violence charity was the “obvious choice”.

She told the PA news agency: “I had a patient not too long ago had been stabbed multiple times by her partner — she was in a situation where she had to be quarantined with this person.

“She was lucky enough to go back to a friend’s house, and it just made us think this was a really important cause, especially at this time.”

They said their motivation was the news that during the lockdown there has been a spike in cases of domestic abuse, with more than 4,000 arrests in London in the last six weeks

The three have raised £6,083 for Solace Women’s Aid, a charity that supports women and children experiencing domestic abuse in London.

Lucy said: “Solace needs £150,000 in extra resources during the crisis. It seemed like an easy way to do our thing for a charity that has really been hit hard.”

The housemates set up the disco in their basement, with a Zoom call available for people to join and cheer them on. They started by dancing for six hours, before taking a 20-minute break.

Grace said: “The first half went by really smoothly but I certainly hit a wall and it became really difficult once your body gives up on you.

“Around 6am I really started to feel it, and it felt like we had so long to go, and I felt so nauseous and I just started crying.

“But another wind hit me and we really really went for it for the last couple of hours.”

In the last few hours, around 50 people joined on the Zoom call.

Lucy said: “I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done in my life.”