IT is the ultimate dream for Strictly Come Dancing fans – and it is set to become a reality for an inspirational mum.

Heather Parsons will soon find herself foxtrotting on to the dancefloor as one of six contestants chosen to take part in The People’s Strictly for Comic Relief.

The 53-year-old, from Romsey, was nominated along with five other Strictly superfans and will be paired with a professional dancer as she embarks on a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The mum-of-one was chosen for her tireless charity work helping those who find themselves fighting for their lives in intensive care – following her own near-death experience.

Heather’s life was saved by experts at Southampton General Hospital’s intensive care unit after she developed a rare and aggressive soft tissue infection, necrotising fasciitis, which ravaged her body in 2002.

Surgeons raced against time to cut away infected flesh from the back of her leg.

She suffered a heart attack and kidney failure and underwent a tracheotomy and extensive plastic surgery, but within ten weeks she was out of intensive care.

Heather set up the charity Where There’s A Will, to raise thousands of pounds for follow-up support and rehabilitation for patients discharged from the city’s intensive care unit.

This has seen her embark on an endless stream of fundraising missions, but nothing could have prepared her for the moment when she was told that she would be embarking on the ultimate Strictly experience.

She said: “The fact that someone thought I was worthy of being nominated and then the fact I was chosen out of all those people, it’s so much to take in.”

The series will consist of four pre-recorded programmes, the last of which will see all six contestants compete in the famous Strictly Come Dancing ballroom as they vie for the judges’ scores and viewers’ votes.

The winner will be crowned live on BBC One on March 13.