The journey of the Paralympic Flame began on 22 August, when groups of disabled and non-disabled Scouts scaled the four highest peaks in the UK – Scafell Pike (England), Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa (Wales), Ben Nevis (Scotland) and Slieve Donard (Northern Ireland) – to light four National Flames using traditional methods (rubbing flint to create sparks and kindle a flame).
Tonight saw the four Flames united to create the Paralympic Flame at a special ceremony at Stoke Mandeville Stadium, the home of the Paralympic Movement. It is this Flame being carried the 92 miles during the overnight 24-hour Relay, to the Olympic Stadium and the start of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. You can watch the Paralympic opening ceremony on Channel 4 from 8pm this evening, but Royal Mail have already started celebrating our Paralympians.
As promised Royal Mail will paint red post boxes gold to celebrate every ParalympicsGB gold medal win. 11 time Paralympic gold medallist, Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson launched the initiative by helping to paint an iconic red post box gold at Stoke Mandeville Hospital on Tuesday.
The programme is the same as the one undertaken by Royal Mail to celebrate Team GB Olympic gold medal wins. The post boxes chosen will, wherever possible, be in the home-town of the winning athlete. For gold medal winning teams, a post box will be painted gold in the home town of each member. Tanni Grey Thompson said, “The gold post boxes have really captured the public’s imagination. It’s great that paralympians can enjoy the same honour in their hometowns“.
Throughout the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Royal Mail will produce a stamp for each individual or team ParalympicsGB gold medal win mirroring the way they celebrated our gold medal winning Olympians.
One Response
It’s great that the Paralympics are being celebrated with such vigour here in Britain. I am sure that they will be great. Hoping for a bumper haul of metalware for the national trophy cabinet too!
One thing that I recall from my time as an eBay employee, when I was in the UK and the US, is that eBay and ecommerce has really opened up business opportunities for people who previously couldn’t hope to start an enterprise.
I recall meeting very successful and staggeringly profitable eBay sellers with quite severe conditions who were able to sell professionally in a way that was simply impossible before. It was always a great joy to hear their stories.
That’s testament to the internet in general, of course, and I hope we might be able to reflect on that over the course of the Paralympics.
Please do get in touch if you have a story like that that we can share here on Tamebay.
Dan