A TEENAGE performer stepped in to save the day after a circus acrobat fractured his jaw.

For the past seven years, Victoria Jackson has spent two weeks during her summer holidays learning skills at Circus Mondao, during its annual visit to Hunger Hill, near her parents’ farm, off Wigan Road.

Last week, one of the Moroccan acrobats fell during a somersault performance and was taken to Royal Bolton Hospital, leaving the attraction a man down.

Former Ladybridge High School pupil, Victoria, aged 16, stepped in to be the third person on a three-man high pyramid after previously mastering the aerial silks.

Victoria, who starts a catering course at Runshaw College, Leyland, in September, said: “I really enjoy it.

“We’ve been practising before the show and made up the routine. Climbing on their shoulders, it was a bit scary because you have got to have balance to climb up and then stand on them and steady yourself.

“I climb up three of them, I’m the third one on. It’s quite high.”

Victoria has performed in two shows a day since Friday and is enjoying the thrill despite taking a tumble herself during one performance.

She said: “When you are performing, if you fall off, then you just get back up and do it again. I fell off on Sunday, it was quite busy.

“I think that’s what made me nervous.”

Victoria says her balance skills and head for heights come from trampolining, which she has done since the age of two and practises once a week at St Catherine’s Academy.

Last week, The Bolton News reported how Victoria had appeared in recent Circus Mondao shows, riding camels, and has her own aerial silks set up in her family barn.

She was recently given a trapeze with hoop and plans to master that act before the circus returns next year.

Circus Mondao is at Hunger Hill until Sunday.