Youngster brings Games flame to Yorkshire

An inspirational eight-year- old boy who only learned to  walk last year proudly stepped out to collect part of the Paralympic flame on behalf of Yorkshire.

Evan Whitton, who was born with cerebral palsy, was chosen to represent the county at a ceremony in London’s Trafalgar Square yesterday where he was given a miner’s lamp containing a splinter of the flame from  director of Paralympic integration and Paralympian Chris Holmes.

The youngster also met Prime Minster David Cameron, Mayor of London Boris Johnson and chair of the organising committee and famed Olympic athlete Lord Sebastian Coe.

The schoolboy later brought the flame back to York where he presented it to representatives from Sheffield, York, Leeds, Huddersfield and Beverley.

Evan, from Silsden, near Keighley, said: “It felt really, really good. I did it for Yorkshire.

“Today was just amazing, walking in London was a really big achievement for me and it was so exciting to go to Trafalgar Square.”

The flame comes from one created on the summit of Scafell Pilke on August 22 by a group of Scouts.

Evan, who up until last year had been confined to a wheelchair, was chosen to be the Yorkshire ambassador after making his first independent walk to school in May this year.

It followed a pioneering operation in the United States in 2011.

In York, thousands of people turned out to see the flame as it was paraded through the city in an open-top bus.

Wheelchair basketball player and five time Paralympian, Colin Price, brought Sheffield’s flame to the city.

Organisers say another 200,000 tickets are still to be sold for the Paralympics.