With just over two weeks to go, the nerves of contestants in the first annual Strictly Oxford competition are starting to show.

At the weekly training sessions our local celebrities and their dance partners are trying to get to grips with their new moves.

Because on Sunday, July 15, the 16 local faces – including MP Nicola Blackwood and Thames Valley Police chief constable Sara Thornton – will perform in front of a crowd of 500 at Oxford Town Hall.

It is all in aid of Vale House, a specialist dementia care home in Sandford-on-Thames.

Talking in between latin dances on Monday night, Oxford Brookes University vice chancellor Janet Beer said: “It is stretching, it is challenging and it is very hot. And I’m not talking about our dancing.

“It is a bit of a disaster at the moment, but my dance partner Nick and I are supporting each other.”

The dance couples will have had just six weeks of training before they take to the floor for a ballroom dance, latin dance and their individual showdance.

Oxford Mail advertising manager Shane Harding said: “I go from feeling confident one moment to feeling sick the next. But it is going well.”

All tickets for the event, which is being sponsored by the Oxford Mail, sold out in just three weeks.

The night will feature judges from the world of radio and dance and the compere for the evening will be well-known TV personality Christopher Biggins, below.

Samuel Swinnerton, 20, from all-male acapella group Out of the Blue, said: “You’d think I’d be used to the nerves but I’m as nervous as I ever am.

“Now the gigging season is over for us, I will try to knuckle down and learn all the moves.”

The event aims to raise £20,000 for the Vale House hospice.

The not-for-profit home was set up in Botley in 1990 by a group of volunteers to provide care for those profoundly affected by dementia.

Over the past 20 years the number of people living with dementia in the county has soared and the home moved to a purpose-built 40-bed, £5m centre in Sandford in February.

Head of home Tricia O’Leary said: “We are absolutely delighted to see people putting in such effort for the hospice. It is incredible.”

To support the hospice’s £2.4m fundraising drive, visit valehouse.org.uk/fundraising