Paul Donaghy

Paul is a School Sports Coordinator in Durham City but for him it is more than just a job. He spends much of his spare time working with young people promoting the values of the Olympics. For motivation and enjoyment he offers them some of the more unusual sports such as Aussie Rules Football, Ultimate Frisbee, Dodgeball and Underwater Hockey. He also runs after school clubs and organises the city wide football leagues as well as running the District Under 11 team. As a Level 2 Athletics coach he has also coached pupils at county level and this year trained 3 students to the National Sports Hall Athletics Championships in Birmingham.

Paul is also a role model in sport and has competed and won medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relays at local, regional, national and international level as a Veteran Athlete. Also in order to inspire his pupils (and raise £1600 for St Oswald's Hospice) he broke the Guinness World Record for 100m dressed as a pantomime horse (in 13.23 secs)! This is a credit for anyone, however Paul also suffers from Crohns Disease but will not allow it to interfere with his life. He is recovering from his second major operation in the last year to remove some of his bowel and had a kidney removed because of a cancerous tumour. He is a very impatient patient returning to work before he should have because he cannot remain inactive. He is a worthy torch bearer. CR