AN ANONYMOUS donor has offered to pay a young dancer’s school fees after her family feared a lack of funding could end her dreams of becoming a ballerina.

Jessica Willis, 12, was offered a place at Hertfordshire’s Tring Park School for the Performing Arts after a gruelling audition earlier this year.

But her family launched an appeal for funds because it did not have enough cash to cover the £30,000 costs of a three-year course.

Now a well-wisher has stepped in to pay £10,500 for the course’s first year and Jessica, from Hempton near Banbury, is preparing to follow in the footsteps of former students Julie Andrews, Downton Abbey star Lily James and singer Ella Henderson.

Mother Samantha Willis said the philanthropist, who has asked not to be named, offered to pay for Jessica’s first year at the school after hearing of the family’s struggles.

Jessica, a pupil at Chipping Norton School, said: “It has been my dream to go to dance school and get a professional job as a dancer for as long as I can remember.

“My inspiration was Angelina Ballerina when I was three.

“I haven’t stopped loving it any less than the first day I put on my first pair of ballet shoes.”

The youngster had to battle through an afternoon of ballet and jazz classes, a one-minute choreographed routine and a written test before hearing she had won a place at the school, starting in September.

Garden designer Mrs Willis and husband Jonathan Willis are now hoping they can raise the rest of the cash needed.

She said she hoped families and businesses would make donations to cover the remaining costs of the course.

She added that if any surplus funding remained, a pot of cash could be set up for other dancers.

For further information call Samantha Willis on 07718 586105.