A FITNESS instructor held a four-hour Zumbathon to raise money for a Pitmaston Primary School pupil with a rare form of cancer.

Tina Donkin, along with fellow instructor Denise Wrafter, led 80 women through two sessions on Saturday, raising £2,000 for Oscar Saxelby-Lee, aged five, who has T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

Thousands of people have already attended donor events at the Malvern Road school, as well as the Guildhall and University of Worcester to see if they are a tissue match.

Pitmaston also agreed to allow Tina to host the sessions, which had sold out within 24 hours – while the money will be donated to Oscar’s Justgiving page.

“Originally, we only planned to do one two-hour session with 40 people, but within 12 hours that had sold out, so we decided to hold a second one,” said Tina, of Worcester. “We had sold all tickets within 24 hours.”

She said herself and Denise would never normally hold two sessions of that length back to back on a weekend, while the participants would only normally do one-hour sessions each time.

“It was really tiring, we went full out for the whole two sessions. Zumba is always so much fun but it’s always full on. There was no holding back.”

She said in the second session some of the women came in fancy dress, including bright clothing and tutus and there was a real party atmosphere.

At the end of each session, a showreel of photos of Oscar were played on a projector, while they all stood holding hands.

“I was a little bit emotional at the end,” said Tina. “We stood hand in hand for Oscar to show our love. Some of us were crying, but it was a lovely moment.”

Videos were made at the start of the sessions with all the participants cheering, and another at the end, with everyone holding hands – and both were sent to Oscar and his family.

Tina, 41, is not eligible to be a donor but wanted to help anyway she could.

“I just wanted to be able to hold something like that for the family, to show them how much love there is and that we are all behind them. I felt like I needed to do something.”

Thousands of pounds have already been raised through the Justgiving page and elsewhere for DKMS, the charitable organisation which tests the swabs for viability.

You can register as a donor at dkms.org.uk/en/register-now.