Sophie Hughes

Sophie, aged 20 years, is a quiet, kind and caring person who puts others before herself.

Over the past four years she has participated in the Great North Run, on each occasion fundraising for a different charity - Cafod, The Rainbow Trust, Guide Dogs for the Blind and this year she is fundraising for the Alzheimer's Society.

Sophie does a range of things to raise funds and over the past three years this has included setting up a stall at a local fete and selling homemade decorated cakes. These cakes have been made by herself and very recently she spent fourteen hours in the kitchen preparing the batch of almost 200 cakes for the fete which was held on Sunday 28th August. All of the money Sophie makes is given to charity.

Sophie is a keen runner and a member of Evenwood Road Runners - a small yet close group of runners of all ages. Sophie has been a member for over eight years and religiously attends twice weekly.

As far as her participation in the Great North Run goes, she has improved her times each year from 1hr46mins in 2008 to 1hr24mins in 2010. Sophie has now been promoted into the A Section of the race which puts her with other athletes who will start first start the race in 2011 - a great boost for her self-esteem.

I feel her caring attitude and ongoing desire to positively contribute to help others in society makes her worthy of being considered to be a torchbearer for the 2012 Olympics. CR