Here follows a little report by Cpl Stephanie Webber:

During December 2001 I filled in a nomination form to be an official Queens Jubilee baton runner. On the nomination form I had to write in under 80 words why I thought I should be allowed to participate in the run. This is what I wrote…

I am currently taking part in the Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award. As a former Girl Scout and now an Air Cadet, I have had many opportunities to benefit my community; I have assisted the housebound and discussed their childhood memories with them. I have also taken part in money raising events for national and local charities and helped with a recycling scheme collecting recyclable waste from elderly people’s houses and distributing it to bottle and newspaper banks.

In early February I received the good news that I had been selected as 1 of 2,500 people to be running with the baton and helping it to complete its long trip round the world. Where it will finally end up in Manchester on 25^th July for the opening ceremony of the commonwealth games where the Queen will read out the message that she placed inside it on 6^th June 2002 at the beginning of its journey.

I had been selected to run in Taunton on 18^th June, Day 13 of the Baton Relay, about a month before I was due to run I received my official runners uniform, which I am allowed to keep as a memento. My initial thoughts of the uniform were what a nice pair of pajamas, the shorts come down to my knees and the top was baggy with a very unappealing design, various shades of purple with yellow spots over the top…

But as the big day came and I was about to meet my fellow runners I understood why the uniforms had been made so distinguishable as we stood out a mile and it made us look very professional and united.

There were a handful of journalists from local TV/newspapers asking us questions and taking pictures before we had to get on the convoy bus. On the bus we met the other runners and each one of explained why we had been nominated. This was amazing and really heart touching to hear other peoples stories. There were people who had run marathons all over the world to raise money for charity, there was a young lady with Ceriable Palsy. There were people from all walks of life and it was truly incredible to hear how much time and effort people had put in to helping their community.

When the baton assistant was asked are there any stars running through Taunton today she replied, your all stars.

After introducing ourselves we learnt how to pass the baton and that we would be well protected by 14 police motorcycles, 2 baton relay cars, 2 convoy vehicles and a huge motor home filled with journalists snapping at us whilst we were running.

As the convoy vehicle drove to the first runners stop everyone was nervous and excited, when we reached the first stop everybody stood up and applauded as the runner got out and waited his special moment. As the bus moved on and my stop grew ever closer my stomach started churning and my heart was pumping a thousand beats a minute.

As my stop arrived the only runner left on the bus cheered me off and wished me good luck. As I stepped off the convoy bus I saw my family beaming at me from ear to ear with their proud faces on.

Now was the agonizing wait for the baton to approach before I had to commence with my run. It was only about 500M but that was all I needed to feel as happy as I did. As the flashing lights appeared of the motorbikes I stomached my nerves and boldly stood out onto the road to receive the baton from a worn out but very happy, proud runner. As the baton changed hands the runner before me wished me luck as I started up the hill, with the baton flashing every time my heart pumped. People on the other side of the road stopped their cars, waved at me out of their windows and I excitedly waved back and my Commanding Officer running along the pavement with me and my parents flashing cameras and still smiling. As I looked on up the hill I could see the next runner nervously waiting for me to arrive and before I knew it I was exchanging the baton and was wishing him luck and started upon his journey.

As the convoy vehicle collected me I was greeted by all the other runners smiling and chatting about their experience whilst waving out the windows to onlookers. As I sat down next to another runner we talked about how much we had enjoyed it. It was on the bus that what I had just done really sank into me, I felt very honored to have been selected and was shaking with excitement and I felt proud. When we arrived back at our collection point I swapped numbers with some of the people that I had met, I felt as if I had made life long friends in the space of a couple of hours and hopefully we will be able to keep in contact and talk about the good old days.