"Bring some medals back home!" says iconic Sheffield fundraiser in video message to TeamGB at Paris Olympics
Published 26th Jul 2024, 06:00 GMT
The famous Sheffield fundraiser John Burkhill has been out in the city centre ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with the torch he carried through the city 12 years ago.
Stood next to Barkers Pool’s golden postbox, painted in honour of Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill’s athletic achievements, I found John deep in converation with a mother and her children marvelling over his Olympic torch.
He told me it was the very same torch he’d used to transport the Olympic Flame through Sheffield in 2012, when the Games visited London.
As we have detailed in The Star before, we hardly had 60 seconds with John without someone appearing to donate, shake his hand or just chat.
However, when we did get a couple of minutes, we spoke about how fundraising is going now he has hit that £1million target for Macmillan and he shared a roaring message to the TeamGB athletes heading across the English Channel in the coming weeks.