A pupil at Brookfield School was delighted to show her friends and teachers the Olympic torch her uncle carried through Reading.
Student Ella Taylor was proud to invite her uncle Gordon Ralphs, who was nominated to carry the Olympic torch for battling prostate cancer, to the school.
Ella Taylor and her uncle Gordon Ralphs with the Olympic torch he carried
The 47-year-old told pupils at the school in Brook Lane about his incurable disease urging men and boys to be aware of the symptoms and visit a GP if they were concerned.
He told the group of about 100 pupils that he put off going to the doctors, which delayed the cancer being found.
“It’s very curable if you catch it early enough. They can operate and control it,” said Gordon from Woodley near Reading.
“All I knew is that I started to wee too often. I’d get up in the middle of the night more than once.
“I just want you to remember today what I’ve said and if your body is telling you something that’s not quite right, if you feel something’s not quite right, go to your doctor and they’ll help.
“Just be aware, even at your age, if something isn’t right, talk to someone.”
Gordon was nominated by colleagues at his job with Thames Water and ran the first leg for 300m on July 7 outside the Royal Berkshire Hospital, where he has been treated since being diagnosed with the disease in 2009.
He said of the torch bearing: “It was a wonderful madness. It was fantastic, being on your own town with all your friends and family out there supporting you for about three minutes. It was just magnificent.”
His niece Ella, 13, from Locks Heath, who watched her uncle on the day, said: “Not a lot of people are going to see or touch the Olympic torch so it’s a good experience for the school to see it.
“Because he’s got cancer it was such a good opportunity for him to be rewarded for what he’s done.”
Deputy head teacher Ian Gates added: “This brings it home to the students that the Olympics are close. Hopefully this will inspire some to compete in the Olympics one day, to carry the torch or to do some inspirational work in their own lives, whether or not that’s do to with athletics.”