The Olympic swimmer and now dance floor whizz-kid took time from his hectic rehearsal schedule to meet some youngsters and tell them how it's all done.

The town's star in the hugely popular TV's Strictly Come Dancing shared his experiences with the pupils at St Neots Community College - but the dancing tips will have to wait until another time.

Mark and Hayley Holt, his champion dance partner from the hit show on BBC 1, led the assembly for 330 pupils from the college's Fonteyn House last Wednesday morning (October 22).

Show presenters Bruce Forsyth and Tess Daly would have been proud as the pupils agreed that it was "nice to see them, to see them nice!"
Mark's visit was to give a motivational talk to the 11 to 18-year-olds and this took part in the performing arts area, followed by a question and answer session.

Mark said: "It was a great pleasure meeting the pupils at the college and I really enjoyed giving my presentation to them.
"Both Hayley and I really appreciated the very interesting questions that the pupils asked us.

"The main aim of my talk was to try to inspire and motivate the pupils and encourage them to accept and face challenges. I also wanted them to understand the importance and significance of channelling one's own energy into actually challenging yourself."

His dance partner Hayley said: "It was such a fun morning and I so enjoyed myself. The pupils were brilliant - they were so enthusiastic and clearly very pleased to meet us."We, in turn, were absolutely delighted to be at the college and lead their assembly."
The star-struck pupils were just as delighted.

Lola Preece, 11, said: "The assembly was great. I couldn't believe that a celebrity had actually walked into our performing arts area. I was so excited because it was the very first time that I'd ever seen a celebrity in real life."

Billy Reid, also 11, said:" Mark was very interesting and it was brilliant to actually meet an olympic swimmer."

The fact that Mark lives locally made the whole event more special for 14-year-old Emily Williamson.
She added: "I hope that next time he and Hayley visit us they will show us some of their dancing skills - that really would be great."