“You think you are invincible when you are young, but you are not,” said Danielle, who received the devastating news in January 2005 that she had cancer of the lymphatic system.

She has battled the cancer but without self-pity. Instead, she saw her own situation as a stepping stone to help others.

Her mind is focused on the “bigger picture” she said, the shocking realisation that one in three people can get some form of cancer at some point and that she would like to do something to help.

Of her own situation, she barely borders on negativity. “I didn’t really think about it at first – I just got on with a positive outlook,” said Danielle.

“There have been bad times, but as long as the next day comes, that’s fine by me.”

Dance-mad Danielle had just started a two-year BTec national diploma in dance course at Norwich City College when results from a mini-biopsy showed the cancer and treatment began immediately at Lynn’s Macmillan Unit.

praise for ‘angels’

“The staff were angels,” said Danielle, who has nothing but praise for her consultant Dr Jane Kieden.

Danielle had bouts of chemotherapy lasting in all for a year-and-a-half. She had to have a chest tube fitted for treatment to be administered and despite trying, found it difficult to carry on with the practical side of her studies. “I got merits and distinctions but could not finish the course,” she said.

However, Danielle was determined to succeed, her love of dance fuelled by the music she constantly heard in her childhood when her dad, Malcolm, had a fairground on Hunstanton seafront.

“I think music has always been there. I loved music and the fairground always had music going,” she said.

Danielle, now 21, of Station Road, Stanhoe, had had so much treatment that her body had to have a break.

She had to wait until late 2006 for a stem cell transplant at Addenbrooke’s, the procedure followed by radiotherapy.

However, as usual, she never complained and remained positive about her outlook. She was finally given the all clear last year, but still has check-ups, every four months.

“It was in 2006 when I had started Streetbeatz,” said Danielle. Driven by her need to help others, and despite her own experiences, the idea was that youngsters aged five to 25 could learn to dance in a safe environment at various classes around the area.

hip-hop

“I started it because I was fed up with the whole taboo subject of ‘young adults who don’t do anything’,” she said. “There are so many individuals out there and this was a chance for them to express themselves through dance, mainly hip-hop.”

She has already set up classes at the Oasis Centre in Hunstanton from 4pm to 6pm on Mondays, at the Alderman Peel School in Wells from 6pm to 8pm on Thursdays and St Clement’s High School, Terrington St Clement, from 3.15pm to 4.15pm on Wednesdays.

They are going down a storm – and proving popular.