Torch blazes trail to Paralympics
6:17am Wednesday 29th August 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013
The Cauldron is lit in Stoke Mandeville as the four flames unite
As dawn was breaking across London, the Paralympic torch was being carried through the capital towards the Olympic Park, where it will ignite the start of the Games.
On Wednesday morning the torch will grace the six host boroughs, visiting landmarks including the Abbey Road crossing made famous by the Beatles, Lord's Cricket Ground and London Zoo.
It is due at the Shree Swaminarayan Hindu temple in Willesden, Brent, at about 8am, as the relay is running about an hour and a half behind schedule.
Four individual flames representing the four home nations were carried into the stadium at Stoke Mandeville on Tuesday night, and one combined torch was carried out, a beacon of the Paralympic spirit.
Despite much of the relay taking place taking place under cover of darkness, thousands of people turned out on a clear and chill night to watch it on its journey and cheer on the proud torchbearers.
Working in teams of five, the torchbearers, both disabled and non-disabled, carried the flame from the stadium at Stoke Mandeville - the spiritual home of the Paralympic Games - to the National Spinal Injuries Centre in the village, before bearing it through Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire, to Watford and then on to Harrow in London.
At the start of the relay thousands of people gathered in the market square in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, to watch the event, catch a glimpse of the torch on big screens and enjoy a fireworks display.
Shortly before midnight the Paralympic torch was carried through the village of Weston Turville, in Buckinghamshire, where residents lit candles to line the route.
The first Paralympic Games were held in Rome in 1960.
Stoke Mandeville co-hosted the Games with New York in 1984, when they took over the running of the wheelchair events when Illinois pulled out at the last minute, but 2012 marks the first time the whole Paralympics has been staged in the UK.
