Father-of-two Will Stevenson was bowled over by the welcome he received in Andover as he carried the Olympic torch through the town last week.


Mr Stevenson, an IT consultant from Bur-bage, said of his relay run on Wednesday: “It was fantastic. I couldn’t believe how many people there were and how positive the atmosphere was.


“I really enjoyed my moment, but my fame lasted much longer than the few minutes I was carrying the torch as people wanted to hold it and have their pictures taken with me long into the evening and again in the morning.”


Mr Stevenson had hoped to carry his five-year-old daughter Lily – who attends the Starbase Unit at St Mary’s Infants School, Marlborough – on his shoulders as he did his run, to raise awareness of Smith Mag-enis Syndrome (SMS), a condition she was born with. It causes sleep issues and chronic ear infections.


He said: “Unfortun-ately they wouldn’t let me carry Lily. They said  health and safety wouldn’t allow it. They said she could run alongside, but that wasn’t really an option for her.”


Instead, Lily watched her dad’s run alongside her mum Leanne, one-year-old brother William and many of the family’s friends and relatives.
 

On Friday, Mr Stevenson was invited to visit a school in Andover with his torch.
And this Tuesday he took it along to Burbage Primary School, where the children presented him with a cheque for £100 – raised from their recent wacky races – for SMS research.