AFTER her husband of 16 years died, Newport supply teacher Mandy Lian never expected to find love at a ballroom dancing class.

But within 12 months of meeting her dance partner, Sheng Lian, 31, the pair were married at St Patrick's Church, Newport, in February 2007 and now have one-year-old daughter, Seren.

Mrs Lian, 43, of Haisbro Avenue, has four elder children, Luke, 22, Darryl, 20, Fidonie, 18 and Adrienne, 16.

She said she and Sheng hit it off straight away.

She said: “We became friends right from the word go.

“I didn’t think I would find someone again.”

Mrs Lian's first husband, Simon Williams, died at the age of 36 in May 2002 from a blocked artery.

She said his death was sudden and a complete shock.

Mrs Lian said she had become very independent in the four years she was on her own and so it was a big step even holding another man’s hand.

But she said: “It felt comfortable, we clicked straight away.

“When you’re dancing, you work together so much especially through ballroom. You work through the problems together, there’s more understanding.”

TV programmes like Strictly Come Dancing and The Time of Your Life have inspired thousands of people to take up dancing.

Mrs Lian, who is a supply teacher and a pharmacy technician at the Royal Gwent Hospital, had tried salsa dancing before, but decided to take up salsa classes at Just Dance in the city centre.

It was there she saw the advertisement for beginners’ ballroom classes at the school and went along to a class to watch.

Mr Lian, who works as a retail assistant at Tesco, had been dancing at the school for about 18 months and they first met when he got her up to dance with him.

Mrs Lian remembers: “We just got chatting each week and became good friends. It just went from there.”

The couple got together a few months later.

Mrs Lian remembers the waltz being the first dance they danced together and said it is still their favourite.

The couple competed together in the Welsh Open Championship for Amateurs in ballroom in Cardiff in October 2006.

They had just three weeks to learn two dances for the competition; the quick step and the waltz, and came fourth.

Mrs Lian said: “The pressure was on but we didn’t take it too seriously. It’s easy to blame each other if something goes wrong but you’ve got to take it as it comes.”

They are now taking up lessons again ready for a competition in Blackpool next year.