31 year-old Kate Pearson from Edinburgh is one of the 8,000 people across the UK who will have the honour of carrying the Olympic Torch when it comes to the capital tomorrow. Although she works in Edinburgh she will be carrying the flame in Alloa tomorrow morning just after 9 a.m.
So why was Kate chosen? It seems that it is because she is a big fundraiser! She swam 50km last year for WWF’s 50th anniversary and raised nearly £3,000 in the process. She completed this in the swimming pool at the Dunkeld Hilton Hotel. She won a prize for raising the most money when she was working with WWF.
We caught up with her a day or two back, and Kate explained what happened during her fundraising swim:- “The Hilton staff got me peppermint tea whenever I needed it, and let my supporters do just about anything to keep me going!”
“It took me 20 hours in the end to complete the swim. I wasn’t feeling very well on the day, and lost time on the first half. I had to wait it out for a couple of hours until I felt better. I had done lots of swimming in preparation, and I have an mp3 player which I can use underwater.
“WWF Scotland have a partnership with Coca Cola and they had a special competition to allocate Olympic Torch relay places that they wanted to support. We had an internal nomination committee, and I was really excited to be chosen!
“I have to get up early and have to go to Alloa to carry the torch. I think the logistics of organising the relay have very difficult but the organisers told me that I wouldn’t have to travel more than one hour from home. I have not yet seen the Olympic Torch but I will see it on the day!
“My Mum and Dad are very excited too. I don’t yet have any tickets for the Edinburgh Castle evening celebrations – I suppose I should get some!
“My family is from Edinburgh but I grew up in Peebles, and I went to university in Edinburgh.
“I get to wear the official tracksuit, and just hope it will fit me on the day, as I get to keep it afterwards too. I started training again at the Commonwealth Pool recently to get in shape.
“But I have had dreams about the torch blowing out, and I am worried that I will drop it. I am very clumsy!”
Kate works on the funding side with People’s Postcode Trusts, and has the very nice job of handing over money to a variety of recipients of the People’s Postcode Lottery. (People’s Postcode Trusts are funded by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.) It tends to be things like sports equipment which of course can make all the difference to budding athletes.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
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