Willink School teacher on Olympic torchbearer shortlist

Clare Downey has been selected to potentially carry the Olympic torch on the Reading leg

A SIXTH-form teacher and award-winning volunteer mentor from Burghfield Common has made it onto the shortlist of Olympic torchbearer nominees for the Reading leg of the relay.

Clare Downey, aged 60, has been selected from over 28,000 applications to potentially carry the Olympic torch in the run up to the London 2012 Olympics.

The Olympic organising committee have said she has around a one in fourteen chance of becoming one of 8,000 torchbearers around the country who will carry the torch through their home towns.

Mrs Downey, an art tutor at the Willink School, Burghfield, will find out in December if she has been selected.

She said: “I am very excited, I shall have to go into training. It is a great honour to be nominated.”

Mrs Downey runs the school's volunteer program called Unity, which encourages sixth form pupils to volunteer for at least an hour a week.

Earlier this year Mrs Downey won a national award for her outstanding contribution to youth volunteering, having encouraged 75 per cent of her pupils to successfully apply for a volunteering recognition award.

As well as inspiring the sixth form to volunteer, she has also been on her local Save the Children committee for 34 years.

She was nominated to carry the torch by ‘v', The National Young Volunteers' Service.

Terry Ryall, the ‘v' chief executive officer said:“ She is a dedicated volunteer, a much loved teacher and respected member of her community. Congratulations Clare, we only hope that the judging panel is inspired by your story as much as we are.”

The torch relay will begin at Land's End on May 19, 2012 and it will travel over 8,000 miles in 70 days.

It will stop in Reading on July 10 after Oxford and before Salisbury.

The exact route will be announced in 2012.