A BARROW Schoolboy was on top of the world 20 years ago when he became the best junior line dance performer on the planet.

Family and friends welcomed Ryan McKenna home with a huge banner at the railway station following his junior intermediate category win in the UCWDCWorld Line Dance Championships held in Nashville, USA.

He had won several contests just to get there and at 14 was the youngest in his age group.

The St Barnard’s School pupil won a trophy, gold buckle and a champion’s jacket.

The Mail, on Saturday, January 2000, said his dance teacher mum Janet, dad Steve and four friends had joined Ryan on the Nashville trip.

His mum said: “He was the youngest there and took it by storm. It was brilliant.”

Ryan had only been line dancing for two years.

Mrs McKenna said: “He has helped put Barrow on the map."

Ryan’s new-found dance fame helped to raise £2,268 for the Neuro BlastomaSociety and the Borchardt Children’s Cancer Unit at Manchester, from a line dance event at the Coronation Hall, Ulverston, in February, 2000.

In June 2000 he helped at the presentation ceremony when £2,720 went to lifeboat charity the RNLI from  a series of line dances.