Simon Laing

Simon is passionate about his local community and really wants to see the north east represented fully at the games. He is already volunteering for 2012 at interview events alongside his busy job and helping his community. He loves his job helping under privileged youths to get into higher education, running summer schools and educational programmes to help raise their grades and aspirations. His love of nature means he spends a lot of his spare time volunteering with local environmental groups. He sees the value of getting young people engaged with the natural environment and is in the process of setting up a charity that will create chances for inner city kids to get out of the city and live amongst and learn about the natural world. He volunteers with his local cycle user group and his local residents group, campaigning for better local facilities. Still he finds time for family, and is always taking his grandparents out for the day even when his mates are at the pub! All in all his passion for youth development, community and volunteerism is what I think makes him an inspirational person and a great person to carry the torch for his city, region and country!