Policewomen on runway for Rock the Catwalk

Jan 29 2010 Perthshire Advertiser Friday

FAIR City police officers will be pounding a different beat at this year’s Rock the Catwalk.

Eight female officers from Tayside Police have been persuaded to shed uniforms and let their hair down with about 50 other aspiring models for the fourth annual fashion, music and dance fundraiser at Perth Concert Hall.

While 20-year-old wunderkind Jade Beatson remains at the helm, she now has the full resources of new partners McEwens of Perth at her disposal for the Help for Heroes benefit.

“It’s definitely going to be the biggest and best Rock the Catwalk yet,” said Ms Beatson, who single-handedly and successfully first executed her concept in 2007 to raise funds for CLIC Sargent.

“I’ve always danced and started at the Julie Young School of Dance when I was four. One day I decided I wanted to organise a fashion show at Perth Concert Hall.

“A friend of mine had cancer and I thought CLIC Sargent would be a good charity to collect for.

“So I booked the hall and it just kind of took off, it wasn’t really planned precisely, it just happened. I pretty much run the whole thing; organise, direct, choreograph, rehearse, everything.

“It’s an awful lot of work, and every single year when I’m working on it, I’ve thought, ‘oh, no, what have I done?’ But then, a few months after it’s all over, I start thinking I’ll do it again, and then I wonder why!

“But it’s always worth it on the night.”

McEwens spokeswoman Georgina Bullough said the store hoped to help take the event up a notch, attract more local sponsorship and raise a substantial sum to help wounded servicemen and women.

“Jade is a remarkable young woman,” she said.

“She did (Rock the Catwalk) by herself, filled the hall, raised thousands of pounds, basically on the strength of her personality, charm and persuasion

“At any age that would be completely amazing but for someone who was 17 it was completely extraordinary.”

Help for Heroes’ nomination stemmed from Ms Bullough’s husband John, who served with the Scots Guard and is now a special constable with Tayside Police.

“John served in Northern Ireland and the first Gulf War, and his old regiment are soon going out to Afghanistan, as is the Black Watch, so it was his idea really,” she said.

Ms Bullough said although deaths of military personnel were widely reported, the enormous number of non-fatal casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq did not grab as many headlines.

“In World War One the ratio of casualties to deaths was approximately three to one,” she said.

“Now, due to body armour, helicopters and high-tech field hospitals, that ratio is up to 40 to one

“It is estimated that there are 3,000 to 8,000 serious casualties. They must not be forgotten. Help for Heroes helps them build new lives despite their terrible injuries.”

On a lighter note, Ms Beatson said the show was not simply just models strutting and striking poses.

“It’s more of a concert, with live music and the modelling choreographed into dance routines and some acting parts as well,” she said.

“All the clothes are being supplied by McEwens and their Boutique shop. McEwens has a lot more to it than you might think, young fashionable stuff and hot labels like Ness and Planet, which is pretty cool, and Oasis.

“No, the police women won’t be brandishing their truncheons but there will be a surprise – I’m keeping that under wraps.”

l Rock the Catwalk - a Show for Heroes, at Perth Concert Hall, 7.30pm, Saturday, March 13. Tickets start at £14 adult, £9 under-16, available from Perth Concert Hall on 01738 621031 or at www.horsecross.co.uk.