Hussain Manawer

Ilford fundraiser among Redbridge Olympic torchbearers

by Zjan Shirinian, News Editor Thursday, March 22, 2012
12:49 PM

Two young people whose fundraising work has been highlighted in the Recorder are among the 26 whose hands will clutch the Olympic torch as it travels through Redbridge.

Grace Boxall receiving her Young Citizen Award from Mayor Cllr Chris Cummins

Hussain Manawer was the March 2011 winner of the Recorder/Redbridge Rotary Club Young Citizen Award, and has been chosen to be a torchbearer in Basildon on July 6 after being nominated by his sister and a friend.

He only found out on Monday after catching up with his emails, having just returned from Cape Town.

The 21-year-old of Endsleigh Gardens, Ilford, said: “I’m proper excited. I want all my friends who have helped me with my fundraising to be able to run with me on the day.”

Hussain climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2010 to raise money for victims of the Pakistan floods, and he advises police on how to engage with young people through his role with the independent advisory panel.

The Olympic torch will be carried through the streets of Redbridge on July 22

Another winner of the Young Citizen monthly award, sponsored by Exchange Ilford, will help carry the torch through Redbridge. Grace Boxall, 14, set up her own charity, Smiles for Grace, after surviving a brain tumour.

Her father Peter said: “It’s such an iconic thing. It’s fantastic and she’s really looking forward to it.”

They will run, torch in hand, about 300m, as will other chosen torchbearers including David Backhouse, of Ilford, Jess Archard, of Woodford Green, and Luke Williams, of Wanstead.