Award winner (2025)13th June 2025
Alice is a nineteen-year-old young lady, who loves musical theatre and is a huge fan of Strictly Come Dancing. She is autistic, has Downs Syndrome, and uses Makaton signs and symbols to communicate with others.
When Alice originally discovered Strictly, she questioned why the dancers would wave ‘goodbye’ at the very beginning of the show – as this is what their wave translates to in Makaton. It didn’t make any sense!
Following this, Alice (with the help of her mum Amanda) started making videos and posting them online, asking the stars of Strictly to be more inclusive and sign concepts like, THANK YOU and HELLO on the show.
After chipping away at this for many years, Alice has had an incredible response – with many celebrities and professionals having signed thank you to their public voters every single week this year – including stars Ellie Leach, Vito Coppola, Nikita Kuzmin and Sam Quek. An incredible win to finally see positive impacts of inclusion on mainstream TV!
Watch what Ellie had to say about meeting Alice on Instagram Reels.
Alice’s success then led to her appearance in an ITV series with the Strictly 2023 winners Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola. As Ellie commented, the ‘little things’, like responding to a request from Alice to sign ‘thank you’ live on TV, is what really matters.
In addition to her videos, Alice also makes a Strictly matching game and score sheets for every series. They are freely available for anyone who needs a bit of extra help like Alice in learning about the new celebrities and keeping track of the scores. These are downloaded by hundreds of strictly fans, including colleges and schools where they are distributed for any Strictly obsessed student to use.
What’s more, Alice also enjoys signing ‘Hello my name is’, which she did at a conference on stream with around 200 student nurses.
Alice is a true advocate for inclusion, who shows that dedication and perseverance always pays off.
You’ll be pleased to know that she still screams with delight when she sees THANK YOU been signed on Strictly.