Silsden boy Evan brings Paralympic flame to Yorkshire (From Craven Herald)

Silsden boy Evan brings Paralympic flame to Yorkshire

10:28am Thursday 30th August 2012 in News

A delighted mother has praised her eight-year-old son after he played a huge part in bringing part of the Paralympic Flame to Yorkshire.

Lynda Whitton said Evan, who has cerebral palsy, was “fantastic” after collecting a miner’s lamp containing a splinter of the flame in Trafalgar Square, London, on Friday and bringing it back to his home county.

She said she was very proud of her son who managed to walk onto stage to collect the flame from former Paralympian Chris Holmes, while a host of big names including Prime Minister David Cameron, London Mayor Boris Johnson and chairman of London 2012, Lord Sebastian Coe, looked on.

The schoolboy from Silsden has been in a wheelchair for most of his life but underwent a life-changing operation in the US in 2011 – enabling him to walk to school for the first time in May. However, despite his nerves, Evan proudly picked up the flame and travelled by train to York for a hero’s welcome ahead of the Paralympic Games, which are expected to be the biggest in history.

“It’s been phenomenal,” said Mrs Whitton. “It’s been a whirlwind couple of days.”

She said Evan had been excited about the ceremony, but had to fight off some last minute nerves before climbing up onto the stage for the prestigious event, which also signalled the lighting of a ceremonial cauldron and a torch relay.

“He’d been looking forward to it, but when it got closer he was nervous,” she said. “We were being called up one at a time and Evan was supposed to be the first one up. However, he went up third. He was fantastic and managed to walk up and get the flame.”

The flame collected by Evan is part of the National Paralympic Flame and in York he presented it to representatives from Sheffield, York, Leeds, Huddersfield and Beverley, where it was due to go on show at events ahead of the games, which started yesterday (Wednesday).

Evan, who met Mr Cameron, Mr Johnson and Lord Coe, said the event was “amazing” and “walking in London was a really big achievement for me and it was so exciting to go to Trafalgar Square.”

Gary Verity, chairman of Yorkshire Gold and chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “Evan is a truly inspiring young man and we hope that his story will inspire others. The Paralympics is undoubtedly going to be a hugely inspiring event and I hope that Yorkshire will get behind our athletes.”

Among those competing is Lothersdale archer Danielle Brown, who is the reigning Paralympic individual compound champion.

The games run until next Sunday, September 9.