Hi my name is CarterJ (Carter J Nathaniel Mundon) to be exact, it is my dream to be attending White Lodge Royal Ballet Boarding School from September to train as a male Ballet dancer.

I have had Type 1 Diabetes for 3 years which is a struggle sometimes to manage but it doesn't and will not hold me back.

I have only been training for Ballet for around 2 and a half year's when my local dance teacher suggested I started Ballet and since then it been an unbelievable whirlwind journey, with successfully auditioning for the Royal Ballet School Birmingham last year and now successfully auditioning for the Royal Ballet Boarding School in London.

To train as a Ballet dancer takes a huge amount of hard work, commitment and dedication, around 30 hour's per week, not to mention the financial side of it all. My parents have already had to make huge sacrifices with time and money and are always doing one thing or another either for my Ballet or for my T1 Diabetes.

I never in my wildest dreams ever imagined that I would get through the auditioning process for White lodge (Royal Ballet Boarding School) London, with over 1400 others auditioning for only 12/14 place's, I class myself as very privileged to of been offered 1 of the 12/14 place's and cannot wait to get started in September.

Funding is very difficult....

The government do give some funding/burseries for children to train at schools such as Ballet Schools, but it only covers some of the fee's, My family have to cover the rest and doesn't include all the uniform, Ballet shoe's, tights, leotards, travel expenses like parking, fuel, air zone tarrifs etc etc.

Now that the government have made a decision to tax private schools an extra 20% on top of fee's, it has made it even harder to afford, it's around an extra £8,000-£10,000 of extra costs.

Both my parents work so hard for me to be able to fulfil my dreams, but these extra costs will put a huge amount of strain on them, as if dealing with me leaving home at 12 and my T1 Diabetes wasn't enough for them.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for very few children, as far as I know I'm the only boy in the whole black country and maybe the west midlands to be attending the school this year and to have the scholarship for 5 year's is a dream come true, but the costs over 5 years for a normal working class family like ours is going to be very difficult.

100% of monies raised though this fundraiser will go directly to Carter J, Ballet School fee's and towards funding Ballet shoe's, uniforms, leotards, etc.

With your help in donations, however large or small will help towards fulfilling Carter J's dream and journey, I completely understand that everyone, not just us are feeling the pinch, but we feel as a family we need to do everything we can possibly do to make Carter's dream a reality so we can all watch him blossom and hopefully become a professional Ballet dancer one day and dance all across the world and his dream is to dance infront of the royal family.

Thank you

To follow Carter J's journey add him on TikTok

https://www.tiktok.com/@c_jt1balletdancer?_t=ZN-8z2PPfTz02I&_r=1