Christine O’Donnell started at the Helen Young School of Dance in 1962 as a pupil.

She progressed through the grades to become a teacher in 1969 and took over the Paisley school in 1988 after Helen Young sadly passed away aged 45.

Helen made the decision to donate proceeds from the school’s dance shows to Leukaemia Research after a young pupil, Josephine Keenan, tragically passed away from the disease.

Christine continued to support the charity and is proud that the dance school has been able to donate such a huge amount of money over the years.

The 63-year-old has been dancing since she was four and said she has “mixed emotions” about making the decision to retire.

She has spent her whole life working with children and taught at St James’ Primary School in Renfrew for 31 years.

Christine said her biggest support has been her husband, John, who she met at the dance school when he came to play the bagpipes for a highland dance class.

The couple have been married for 38-years and John has played a big part in helping Christine with the enormous task of organising the annual dance shows.

Christine said: “John did all the bookings, the music, programmes and tickets for the show and I concentrated on the dance. He has been involved all these years.” Christine, who has Fibromyalgia, a chronic muscle pain, made the decision to retire after John suffered a heart attack.

However, she will still be involved with the school which is being taken over by Claire Irwin and Julie McFall who have been there for more than 20 years. When Christine held a party in Paisley Town Hall to celebrate her time at the school she was inundated with cards and presents.

She said that the main highlights of her time at the Helen Young School of Dance were “seeing the pleasure children get out of dancing, meeting life long friends and meeting my husband.”