I had the great honour of being one of the Queen’s Batonbearers for The Commonwealth Games. My segment of the relay was around the Cathedral in Lichfield on the 20th July.

So how on earth did this come about? A volunteer from the Birmingham Branch of Samaritans very kindly put my name forward to be nominated. She nominated me because of all the work and dedication I have put into being a Samaritan for the last 38 years.

For the past eighteen years I have also been a Front of House volunteer at the Birmingham Hippodrome. I am the person who scans your ticket, does a bag check, or shows you to your seat. Over the past eighteen years it has been an exciting experience working in this wonderful theatre and being part of the customer service team, making sure that all our visitors have the best theatre experience possible.

I get a lot of satisfaction and enjoyment from meeting all the different people I come across. With a combination of a newly acquired skills plus experience, I am able to see what’s happening on stage while keeping both eyes on the audience to make sure everyone is safe and enjoying the show.

I think the icing on the cake, which got me enough points to be nominated, was that for the past four years I have been socialising Labradors for the charity Dogs for Good. I socialise them from 8 weeks old and they go off to be trained to be an assistance dog about twelve months later. Who could possibly turn down someone who works with Labrador puppies!

Well back to the day. I arrived at the meeting point in Lichfield and met 10 other Batonbearers who were doing the relay around the streets of Lichfield. We all told our own story of how we were nominated and I quickly realised what a privilege it was to be in the same company as these wonderful people.

There were quite a few who had raised thousands of pounds for their respective charities. There were also some very inspiring stories alongside heart-breaking reason why they had been nominated.

One lady told us that she set up a charity called “Magic of Milly” after her daughter died of a rare congenital condition. Another one told the group that she was having end of life care but was determined to be an active member of the community and not to let the illness define who she was. I felt very humble and honoured to be part of this inspiring group of individuals.

I then began to think about why people volunteer with such passion and dedication? Is it a desire to help others or is it triggered by something dear to their own lives? I suppose we all have our own reasons for volunteering and I think if it was not for volunteers, then the quality of everyone’s life and the things we enjoy would certainly suffer.

After the introductions we were taken by police escorted mini bus to our separate starting points. It felt really strange to have so much high security around us, but then I realised it was to stop the baton being nicked and I certainly wouldn’t want this to happen on my segment!

I had not really put much thought into how I would feel on the day. In one way I was thinking no big deal just stroll around my segment of the relay, take in the atmosphere and enjoy myself. I then began to think about where this baton had been and the importance of the relay. It had travelled through 72 countries and had been carried by thousands of people with their own inspiring stories and a wish that we could all come together and celebrate as one community.

The enormity of this made these few hundred yards become slightly more awesome than I had originally imagined. The fact that I had a text from my son saying; “whatever you do dad, don’t fall over” and another one from my daughter saying; “I don’t want to hear on the news that you dropped and broke the baton”, certainly did not help the nerves.

I then took a deep breath and reminded myself that not only was I carrying this baton to celebrate the Commonwealth Games coming to Birmingham but also for all the listening and support volunteers, not only at Birmingham Samaritans but throughout all 201 Branches of the UK. These volunteers take time out of their precious lives to help others. I dedicated my segment of this relay to them all.

But most of all I was carrying the Baton with pride for all the Brummies out there who are thinking how absolutely “bostin” it is to have the Commonwealth Games in our beloved Brum.

With that in mind, I think I skipped most of the way. I was surprised by the number of people lining the route cheering and waving. My wife Bridget was clapping and shouting encouragement while trying to take a video, which most certainly helped to make this a wonderful experience.

I did have a very large smile on my face when I thought that there was no way at the age of 73, I would have been part of a relay in the Commonwealth Games and yet it was happening.

Find out more about becoming a volunteer at Birmingham Hippodrome here.

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