Well, we're on the home straight now! Less than two weeks to go until opening night. Jo has been such a great teacher. My coordination and timing are improving, and we are starting to come together as a team. Great news! Jo and I are the first couple on the first night. We'll be setting the bar pretty high! And we will be able to sit back and enjoy our co-dancers' performances. Last week we ran through our routine 5 times in one night. AWESOME! Quite an exhilirating experience! (Only trouble is, now my back is so sore I can hardly move.) But we are going to GET THERE!  Thanks for everyone who has sponsored us, and looking forward to seeing you all on the nights.

STAR - DAVID LEAROYD
PARTNER – JO BROWN

Though I grew up in Sydney, I always wanted to live the country life after finishing medical school. On the census form when they ask what do you actually do in your job, I write “ Save lives, eradicate disease and alleviate suffering!” I love my job, especially as a country GP because you can really give “cradle to grave” care for people; hopefully a bit more “cradle” than “grave”, but all aspects are important, and I value being able to “be there” for people at significant times in their lives (with apologies to those mums giving birth when I haven’t actually made it in time!). 

I am married to the most wonderful lady, Ali. My first remark after meeting her was “You could do a lot worse than that!” And I stand by that judgement! We have four fantastic children, Hannah, Noah, Clare and Zeb. 

My passion in life is Jesus, and my family. In my spare time, I love to drink coffee, go bushwalking, and convince others of the vastly superior qualities of Mac computers. I also enjoy singing, and hopefully, dancing.

I accepted this invitation ‘cos I enjoy making a bit of a spectacle, I wanted to try to match Andrew Egan’s amazing performance from last DWTCS, and I can use the excuse of practicing for the dance so I don’t have to do as much “on call” for Maternity (well, he used it last time!) How could I possibly say “No”? While we're talking about contributions, Andrew is my very generous "Foundation Sponsor", with a whopping $1000.00! The challenge for everyone else is to match that!

The biggest challenge will be trying not to injure Jo Brown. She is so tiny that if I am asked to throw her in the air or something dramatic like that, I’m afraid she  might just fly off into orbit! We’ll have to practice indoors so that doesn’t happen.

I expect I will learn that “timing is everything”, and that I haven’t got it. And that the  hip bone’s connected to the thigh bone and the thigh bone’s connected to the knee bone, but that the connections are getting a bit dodgy! I also expect I’ll discover once again that Cooma has some very talented and dedicated people, and what a great community it is to be a part of.

JO BROWN PROFILE

I’m a local born and bred, married to Tom, another local, and we have four beautiful children. Our two boys and two girls are grown up and spread across NSW at this stage.

I work full time at Cooma Rural, the local CRT store in Commissioner Street, and I also do all the behind the scenes paperwork for Tom’s building and floor sanding business.

Music, dance and theatre have always been quite a passion for me. I’ve also been learning to play the flute in the last couple of years, enjoying the challenge of a new direction in music and performance.

Having had such a fabulous time in DWTCS in 2000 I couldn’t say no when Sandy and Carolyn asked if I would participate again – it was such an amazing journey for everyone!

I’m looking forward to lots of fun again and making DWTCS 2012 another momentous event for Cooma and MCCR.