Dancing through grief: Katherine’s story

October 2025

This December, the Early Night Club in Cambridge will be hosting a sequin-filled Christmas party in support of WAY Widowed and Young – donating 10% of profits from their 18 December event to help support young widowed people across the UK. 

The pop up club night, which was launched in 2009 by tired parents who wanted to be home in bed by midnight, will also be offering discounted tickets to local WAY members – including Cambridge widow Katherine, whose story inspired the glitter-themed fundraiser.

---

Katherine was 45 when she lost her husband, Alex, in a tragic accident two years ago. “I have always loved dancing. It makes me feel so alive. When I lost my husband Alex, the world went dark, but I knew in my heart, I had to keep dancing. Giving up wasn’t an option. For Alex, for our three boys. For me.” 

“So about six months in, I threw on my favourite catsuit, grabbed some friends and went back to the Early Night Club,” she recalls. “Dancing holds an amazing healing power even in life’s darkest times.”

Katherine has since created @glitter_and_grief, a social media space to share her experiences and encourage others to embrace both the sadness and the joy that come with loss. And she is also writing a book about her experiences.

“Grief and joy can and must co-exist,” she says. “The glitter and the grief – and what better place to take it than the dancefloor?”

Finding a way forward

Through WAY, Katherine found vital support and hope for the future. “Becoming a WAY member introduced me to a community of thousands of compassionate widowed people, which made me feel less alone,” she said. “It also helped to hear the more hopeful stories from people who had been widowed for quite some time. I thought that maybe, just maybe, if they could survive this, so could I. There was hope for me. There is nothing more important after the loss of a life partner than hope.”

---

Alex Ruczaj, who founded the Early Night Club back in 2009, said, “We are honoured that we have been a part of Katherine’s journey as she navigates her way through this tragedy with such courage, whilst finding some healing on the dancefloor. In our photos, Katherine is always smiling, and there have been plenty of tears too, plenty of hugs and unbelievably tough moments. Katherine is redefining what it means to be a widow – she says herself she has been broken into thousands of pieces by this loss, and somehow she shines as bright as our glitter ball when she’s dancing. There are times when she is floored by the grief, and other times when the dancefloor surrounded by her friends is where she needs to be. We are so proud to have her as such an important part of the Early Night Club community and to be helping her raise funds for this brilliant charity that helps young widows in the darkest of times.”