{"id":374,"date":"2012-06-28T13:56:34","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T13:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/?p=374"},"modified":"2021-10-18T08:23:46","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T08:23:46","slug":"community-and-charity-the-alternative-torch-relays-springing-up-across-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/community-and-charity-the-alternative-torch-relays-springing-up-across-the-uk\/","title":{"rendered":"Community and charity: the alternative torch relays springing up across the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

While LOCOG argues<\/a> that sponsors are needed to support the Olympic torch relay, and councils struggle<\/a> to meet the costs of hosting it, there’s a genuine\u00a0Olympic spirit quietly at work in a series of grassroots alternatives across the country.<\/p>\n

From Devon to Moray, alternative relays are involving local communities and raising money for good causes.<\/p>\n

Foremost among these is The Real Relay<\/a>, which sees runners following the official Olympic torch across the British Isles while avoiding the torch’s stops and shortcuts. Organiser Kate Treleaven says they\u00a0set the relay up in just 5 days:<\/p>\n

“We came up with the idea of the Real Relay on Wednesday 23 May, 3 days after seeing the official torch pass through our Devon village. We put the website online\u00a0on Friday 25 May and we waved our first runner off from Land’s End at midnight on Mon 28 May. We don’t want to knock the official torch relay in any way but we do feel that we’ve proved that LOCOG could and should\u00a0have organised a continuous running relay for the torch. They had 8 years and seemingly bottomless resources to organise it!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In Bridlington<\/strong> in Yorkshire, locals were so frustrated by a torchbearer place being given to a Saudi Arabian entrepreneur that they organised their own alternative<\/a>, with a torch being carried by a disabled long jump star, an athlete, and two members of the town’s fencing club, including still-competing 78-year-old Joy Fleetham.<\/p>\n

The relay was then\u00a0called off<\/a>\u00a0after the local council said it could not support it.<\/p>\n

Locals in the Forest of Dean<\/strong> held their own relay<\/a> when the official version missed the area out, in Wimbledon<\/strong> the local newspaper is\u00a0helping to organise an alternative event<\/a>\u00a0after locals were “snubbed”, and in Westerham<\/strong> the local paper launched a “Flaming Cheek” campaign, including\u00a0plans<\/a> to hold an alternative relay too.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Moray<\/strong>\u00a0in North East Scotland\u00a0local group\u00a0Walk, Jog, Run Moray<\/strong>\u00a0ran its own relay<\/a>\u00a0with\u00a0a target to involve 2012 local people, including the\u00a0oldest and youngest resident:<\/p>\n