Alasdair Bain

London 2012: Wanstead man involved in Olympic Opening Ceremony describes moment as ‘incredible’

by Zjan Shirinian, News Editor Saturday, July 28, 2012
2:39 PM

A Wanstead member of the huge cast of volunteers who took part in last night’s Olympic Opening Ceremony has described the experience as “incredible”.

Alasdair Bain, 24, of Redbridge Lane West, Wanstead, performed in a “transformative” segment of the show at the Olympic Stadium, which saw the green and pleasant land at the beginning of the ceremony become an industrialised heartland as the Olympic rings dramatically formed overhead.

An estimated two billion people watched the multi-million pound ceremony from Stratford.

Alasdair, 24, who works for the Department of Work and Pensions, wrote on social networking website Twitter after the ceremony: “That. Was. Incredible.”

He added: “I just got [tennis player] Novak Djokovic to sign my glove!”

Also performing last night in the Opening Ceremony, seen by a UK peak television audience of 26.9million people, was Marianna Dadejova, 29, of Eastern Avenue, Newbury Park.

She was one of about 1,000 medical staff who represented the NHS in film director Danny Boyle’s extravaganza.

Speaking before last night’s show, the dental nurse with North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT), said: “It’s really fantastic to work with Danny Boyle and to have direct contact with him. Even if something is going wrong, he cheers us up.”

Two other NELFT staff members, Caroline Dawes, of Redbridge’s podiatry service and Harjit Bansal, an equality and diversity manager at Goodmayes Hospital, also took part in the ceremony.