Receiving an invitation to lead the Midday Dance on Flora Day is a once-in-a-lifetime honour afforded to very few - so for one Helston man receiving it a second time, it is something very special indeed.

Giles Clotworthy will be hoping it's second time lucky after being named as one of the leading set for the second year in a row, along with Eileen McLoughlin, Christian Johns and Kristine Furneaux.

Only two weeks after he was revealed as being in the leading set for 2019 Giles suffered a devastating injury, breaking his leg in two places and forcing him to withdraw from the dance.

Read more: Devastating injury forces change to Flora Day dance leader line up

Now the Flora Day Association has taken the unusual step of sending a second invitation to lead.

Giles said: "It's fantastic. I've had my fingers crossed for 12 months and it paid off. I have been wrapping myself in cotton wool just in case!"

Former Helston estate agent Giles, who now works for Complete Business Solutions - still known to many as Brewers - at Water-ma-Trout said he was looking forward to the day, adding: "I missed out last year but I think this one will be a huge one, being on a bank holiday."

The 52-year-old was born only 100 yards from the Guildhall and being asked to lead was something he had always dreamed of.

Having danced as a child through Parc Eglos School, he was unable to dance in secondary school as he went away to school in Truro. He went on to dance once in the Morning and Evening Dances, and has taken part in the Midday Dance for many years.

Giles will be partnered with Eileen McLoughlin, who said: "I'm feeling very proud indeed - and very excited about everything."

She went to school at St Michael's, where she was in the leading set of the Children’s Dance when she was aged seven or eight.

The 56-year-old has also been in the Hal-an-Tow before starting to dance the Midday with Geoff Wakeham.

Despite being “thrilled” at the invitation, it is a bittersweet moment for Eileen, who lost both her parents, Rosemary and Idris Williams, a former taxi driver in the town, in the last two years.

“Mum passed away last year and she would have been absolutely thrilled, being Helston-born herself,” said Eileen, who has owned a respite care home in Godolphin Road for people with disabilities, through the Shared Lives South West scheme, for the last 28 years.

“Flora Day has always been part of me through my family.”

Falmouth Packet:

This year's Flora Day Midday Dance leaders Christian Johns, Kristine Furneaux, Elaine McLoughlin and Giles Clotworthy

In the other pair will be Christian Johns, a helicopter mechanic at RNAS Culdrose.

The chief petty officer was cycling to work when he heard about the invitation in the post, via an excited telephone call from his wife Samantha.

“I was very shocked,” he said. “It’s quite an honour.”

The 44-year-old went to Parc Eglos School and then Helston School before joining the Royal Navy.

“Flora Day is something I’ve grown up with,” said Christian, whose dad Brian Johns led Morning and Evening Dances in the 1970s.

A keen rugby player, Christian used to play rugby for Helston and was among the side that played at Twickenham in 1996 when the club reached the final of The Pilkington Shield.

In a happy turn of events, his wife is friends with his dance partner, Kristine Furneaux.

Despite walking behind the Evening Dance each Flora Day, as a committee member for the last 20 years, Kristine has never led a dance – even though she has only ever missed one year of dancing, since she was first able to do it as a child with Parc Eglos, even travelling back during the two years she lived in Gosport.

Now aged 40, it will be a special way to mark her landmark birthday year.

Kristine followed in the footsteps of her mother, Anne Tuttey (née Dinsdale) onto the committee of the Morning and Evening Dances and also took part in it for many years.

“I just love Flora Day,” she said. “It’s always been a big thing.”

Such is her love for the day that she even has her own private Facebook page on which she sells fabrics she has found throughout the year to be turned into dresses for May 8 – leading to the nickname amongst her friends of “Flora Day Queen.”

Giles and Eileen will be leaving the Guildhall first on the stroke of noon, followed by Christian and Kristine. The couples will then swap places in the gardens of Lismore.

This year will be the first time ever that Flora Day will fall on a bank holiday, after the government moved the Early May Bank Holiday to Friday, May 8 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day.