Great gran dubs herself “Britain’s oldest swinger” after £14k op to get her ballroom dancing again

She proves age is only a number!

Glamourous Molly Beaumont has been dancing professionally since the late 1950s and didn’t let a huge cyst on her backstop her.

An 84-year-old great gran who still teaches ballroom dancing and describes herself as “Britain’s oldest swinger” is refusing to hang up her sequins despite enduring over six months of “excruciating” pain from an undiagnosed spinal cyst.

Glamourous Molly Beaumont, from Cleckheaton in West Yorkshire, went against the advice of her friends and family and carried on the salsa and the rhumba even after doctors confirmed in September 2017 that the searing and relentless pain in her back was due to a large cyst on the sciatic nerve at the base of her spine.

Molly when she was younger (1) (Collect/PA Real Life)

The ballroom and Latin dance teacher, who has been a professional cavorter for the past 60 years and who has won numerous competitions in the UK and across Europe, still teaches up to 30 hours of dance classes a week to adults at a leisure centre in Oulton, just outside Leeds, and says she has no plans to give up yet.

“My sons and my grandsons all said to me, ‘Why don’t you pack it in?’. But I replied to them, ‘I’m not nearly old enough to pack it in yet – I’ve still got another good 10 years in me and I’m not going to let a little back problem stop me,’” said Molly, who is married to 90-year-old Harry Pearl, a DJ who spins discs at his wife’s dance lessons.

She added: “They’d like me to see more of my great grandsons, but I want to keep working. Age is just a number and I don’t feel old at all. I may be 84, but I feel like I could go out and knock the world in two. I’m fighting fit and can still do everything with my body that a younger person can.”

Molly in her garden (3) (Adrian Forrest/PA Real Life)

Twice married Molly, who has one son Paul, 53, two grandsons Jason, 33, and Jonathan, 30, and two newly born great grandchildren, Alice-Molly and Thomas, says that her family are the most precious thing in the world to her, but ignored their pleas to take a break from her dance lessons when she developed a crippling pain in her lower back.

Despite not being able to do any day-to-day physical activity, the spritely octogenarian still didn’t miss any of her dance classes which she teaches three days a week, on Tuesdays clocking up an astonishing 12 hours.

She explained: “Living with the pain killed me. I was in agony 24/7 and there was no let up. I really couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t walk properly – I could hardly move.

“But it never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t go out to dance. I obviously had to take a lot of painkillers, but actually it took my mind off the agony. When you’re busy, doing something that you love, you forget the pain.”

Molly in her ballroom costume when she was younger (2) (Collect/PA Real Life)

After several months, however, it became too much for her. Having been told that she may have to wait years on the NHS for an operation to remove the cyst that was putting pressure on her sciatic nerve – the largest nerve in the body, which runs from the lower back to the feet – Molly decided to go private, spending £14,000.

During a two-hour operation, which she underwent Spire Hospital in Leeds in April 2018, Molly’s troublesome cyst had to first be punctured as it was too large to be removed whole.

Molly recalled: “It was quite a gruesome procedure. After they had taken it out they then had to scrape the bone to make sure it had all gone.”

Molly when she was younger (2) (Collect/PA Real Life)

She continued: “But afterwards I immediately felt better again. It was such a relief. I try not to let anything get me down, but that pain had been just so awful for so many months.”

The lively great grandmother, who has never had any serious illness or injury before, was keen to get back to dancing straight away after her operation but was told she would have to wait five weeks, much to her disappointment.

“I was raring to go,” she said, “But my doctor told me I had to take it easy. He was really quite shocked in fact at how much energy I have. But I said to him, ‘This is my life. Dancing is all I know.’ I think he understood.”

Molly took up her lifetime passion in the late 1950s when as a teenager she began dancing at the Albion Ballroom in Castleford, West Yorkshire, where her stepmother worked.

“The owner kept asking me to come and join the dance classes there,” she recalled, “I kept saying no, but eventually agreed to, really just to keep him quiet.

“As soon as I stepped out on that dancefloor I was hooked. I’m very glad I said yes to him in the end.”

Molly in her ballroom costume when she was younger (1)(Collect/PA Real Life)

Dancing quickly became her life, especially after meeting her first husband George beneath the spotlights at a competition at the Albion Ballroom.

“It was a competition just like Strictly Come Dancing,” explained Molly. “He was an excellent dancer and I knew when I saw him there in that ballroom that I wanted to marry him.”

Molly got her wish and the pair married in 1959. They also became dance partners and soon after getting married both turned professional, enabling them to enter international competitions in Madrid, Rome, Paris and at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Not content with touring the world, Molly and George also opened their own ballroom back at home in West Yorkshire, in the small village of Methley, where they ran dance nights and began teaching.

It was a wonderful life of glamour and excitement, recalls Molly who won a haul of trophies and medals during her competition years, but sadly it all came to an end in 1987 when George died of a heart attack at the age of just 54.

“The competition years were wonderful, but I knew they would end eventually. I used to love the glitz of it all, used to love getting dressed up in those incredible costumes. In my opinion people don’t dress up enough these days,” she said.

Molly in her garden (2) (Adrian Forrest/PA Real Life)

Winning competitions and touring the ballrooms of the world hold no appeal for Molly any more, and she hasn’t even kept any of her old trophies and medals, after getting rid of them during a house move.

Despite that though she still keeps up to speed with the latest developments of ballroom dancing and regularly attends conferences held by the International Dance Teachers Association, of which she is a member.

“Dance is always evolving and being involved with the Association I can learn the latest techniques and methods. It helps to keep my brain active,” she said.

As someone who has met two husbands on the dancefloor, the social aspect of the sport has always been important, but now more than ever. In the final stages of her long career, she says she gets far more pleasure from the social aspect of dancing than she ever did from performing for judges.

“You meet so many lovely people that’s why I love it so much. In all my years of teaching, I have probably taught around a million students and I’ve never met a bad one.

“Hopefully, people will have learned a lot from me and will think that if she’s still doing it at 84, then so can I. That gives me a great deal of satisfaction.”

ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden will be the commencement speaker at Morehouse College in Georgia, giving the Democrat a key spotlight on one of the nation’s preeminent historically Black campuses but potentially exposing him to uncomfortable protests as he seeks reelection against former President Donald Trump.

The White House confirmed Tuesday that Biden would speak May 19 at the alma mater of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., and then address the graduating class at the United States Military Academy at West Point on May 25.

The Morehouse announcement has drawn some backlash among the school's faculty and supporters who are critical of Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war. That could put the White House and Biden's reelection campaign in a difficult position as the president works to shore up the racially diverse coalition that propelled him to the Oval Office.

By Tuesday afternoon some Morehouse alumni were circulating an online letter that condemns the administration's invitation to Biden and seeking signatures to pressure Morehouse President David Thomas to rescind it.

The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, claimed Biden's approach to Israel effectively supports genocide in Gaza and runs counter to the pacifism that King expressed with his opposition to the Vietnam War.

“In inviting President Biden to campus, the college affirms a cruel standard that complicity in genocide merits no sanction from the institution that produced one of the towering advocates for nonviolence of the twentieth century,” the letter states, emphasizing King's stance that “war is a hell that diminishes” humanity as a whole. “If the college cannot affirm this noble tradition of justice by rescinding its invitation to President Biden, then the college should reconsider its attachment to Dr. King.”

Late last week, before the school and the White House formally announced commencement plans, Morehouse Provost Kendrick Brown, Thomas' top lieutenant, sent an email to all faculty acknowledging concerns about “rumors” and affirming that the school issued the invitation to Biden last September. That would have been before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, spurring the sustained counter-offensive that the Morehouse alumni letter called an act of genocide against Palestinians. Brown's email did not reference anything about the Middle East conflict.

Brown invited faculty to an online forum, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, to discuss the matter. But, he added: “Please know going into this conversation that the College does not plan to rescind its accepted invitation to President Biden.”

Morehouse officials have not responded to an Associated Press inquiry.

Earlier Tuesday, Thomas released a statement to BET.com that, like the provost's faculty letter, highlighted the September timing of the invitation to Biden.

Thomas said Morehouse officials “eagerly anticipate” the president's visit, which he called “a reminder of our institution’s enduring legacy and impact, as well as our continued commitment to excellence, progress and positive change.”

The Rev. Stephen Green, pastor of the St. Luke AME Church in Harlem and an author of the alumni letter, said in an interview that his group has reached out to several Morehouse trustees and hopes to speak with Thomas. Green, who graduated in 2014, called the effort part of a “common thread of protest and activism in the Morehouse tradition” of social and political engagement.

“We hope this would send a strong message that we are serious about the values were were taught,” Green said, adding that he wants to see Biden forcefully advocate for a Palestinian state and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Beyond any dissatisfaction over Israel, polling suggests Biden may have work to do with Black Americans generally. More than half of Black adults approve of how he is handling his job as president, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in March, but that’s down significantly from when he took office and 94% approved of his performance.

Biden has increasingly encountered protests this year from progressives who assert that he is too supportive of Israel. The issue has proven vexing for the president. He has long joined the U.S. foreign policy establishment in embracing Israel as an indispensable Middle East ally. Yet he also has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for mounting civilian deaths in Gaza and told him that future U.S. aid depends on Israel taking steps to protect civilians.

The approach has left Biden with vocal critics to his left and right at a time when he has little margin for error in battleground states, including Georgia, that are expected to decide his rematch with Trump.

Biden's speech at Morehouse will mark the second consecutive spring that the president has spoken to the graduating class of a historically Black school. In 2023, he delivered the commencement address at Howard University. The Washington, D.C., school is the alma mater of Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman to hold that office. Morehouse, a private all-male school that is part of the multi-campus Atlanta University Center, also is the alma mater of Sen. Raphael Warnock, Georgia's first Black U.S. senator.

Warnock, who also is senior pastor of King's Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, sidestepped any consternation on campus.

“I could not be more thrilled and honored to see President Biden return to our great state,” the senator said in a statement. “I know the president will have a timely, poignant, forward-looking message for the men of Morehouse.”

The controversy threatens to overshadow the policy priorities that Biden and Democrats have highlighted for months on HBCU campuses around the country. Harris and Cabinet members have spoken on several campuses. Among other policy achievements and priorities, the White House touts increases in federal money support for HBCUs; Biden's efforts to forgive up to $10,000 in student loan burden per borrower and increase Pell Grants for low-income students; energy investments to combat the climate crisis, and Democrats' support for abortion rights and decriminalizing marijuana possession.

Warnock, in his reaction to Biden's invitation, played up his work with the president “to address the high costs of higher education.”

Reflecting the nation's overall racial gaps in income and net worth, Black college students are disproportionately dependent on Pell Grants, which typically cover only a fraction of college costs, and student loans. According to Federal Reserve data, about 1 out of 3 Black households has student loan debt, compared to about 1 in 5 white households. The average Black borrower also is carrying about $10,000 more in debt than the average white borrower. Additionally, federal statistics show about 60% of Black undergraduates receive Pell Grants, compared to about 40% of the overall undergraduate population and a third of white students.

In 2020, Biden won Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes over Trump out of about 5 million ballots cast. The combined enrollment at Morehouse and its adjoining schools that make up the Atlanta University Center is about 9,000 students. Biden’s margin in Wisconsin was less than 21,000 votes. The president had more comfortable margins in Michigan and Pennsylvania but cannot afford to lose Black support across the metro areas of Detroit and Philadelphia.

Among states Trump won, Biden is targeting North Carolina, which has a notable Black college student population. Trump’s margin there was about 75,000 votes.

Kim reported from Washington. Associated Press reporter Darren Sands contributed.

President Joe Biden arrives to speak at Prince William Forest Park on Earth Day, Monday, April 22, 2024, in Triangle, Va. Biden is announcing $7 billion in federal grants to provide residential solar projects serving low- and middle-income communities and expanding his American Climate Corps green jobs training program. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)