This morning (Friday the 23rd of August, 2024) marks 12 years on from when I started an incredible 48 hours as Herefordshire’s Paralympic flame ambassador.
I travelled down to London with family in the afternoon of Thursday the 23rd of August, 2012 after collecting my GCSE results. At 6am the following morning I travelled to the Canadian embassy for a briefing from officials of the London organising committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).
A short time later I moved to London’s Trafalgar Square where I met up with the other Paralympic Flame Ambassador’s, there were only 33 of us selected from across the nation.
Once the flame lighting ceremony had began I listened to speeches from the likes of Boris Johnson, the then Mayor of London and Former Prime Minister, David Cameron.
I got to meet David Cameron prior to collecting the counties flame and that was thanks to my mum asking one of his close protection team if I could meet him, I even remember what he said to me – if the economy gets better then Aston Villa will win the premier league.
A short time after meeting Prime Minister Cameron it was time to watch England’s cauldron get lit, collect part of it and return to Herefordshire.
On arrival home it was time to store our flame in a secret location overnight until the flame celebration at the Royal National College for the Blind’s Queen’s Lawn in the city of Hereford.
I arrived at the venue of the celebration around an hour or so before the event started the following evening so that I could get familiar with it and link up with my horse Gypsy who I would be carrying the flame on.
It was soon 6:30pm and time to make our entrance with the flame in front of an audience of around 1,500 people watching on, when I and Gyspy arrived at the stage and presented the flame to the then Mayor of Hereford, Brian Wilcox I made a short speech.
During the speech I thanked the people who had nominated me to have the honour of being the counties flame ambassador and Herefordshire RDA for allowing me carry the flame on horseback.
However my speech didnt go without incident as Gypsy didnt like the feedback from the microphone that I was using and got a little bit upset, this forced me to throw it on the floor otherwise I could have been bucked off.
Since 2012 I have had the honour of doing some remarkable things including carrying the Queen’s Baton on its journey to the 2022 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony at Birmingham’s Alexandra Stadium.
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Cam
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