Torchbearer Proposes On Olympic Torch Relay
18 June 2012, 11:53 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50
A Torchbearer from Redcar had another reason to celebrate this morning - after proposing to his girlfriend during his leg of the Olympic Torch Relay.
Torchbearer David State stopped on the leg between Marske-by-the-Sea and Loftus to propose to his girlfriend, Christine Langham.
Christine, who's 8 months pregnant, said yes and the couple were cheered and clapped by the hundreds of people who'd lined the route through Loftus.
This leg of the relay brought glorious sunshine as the flame was passed along the Yorkshire coast.
PE teacher Kelly Williams, 25, was watched by thousands of well-wishers including members of a local pirates' society as she ran the flame into the centre of Whitby, in the shadow of the seaside town's famous abbey.
Traders said the bright sunshine and warm early morning temperatures meant the torch brought with it the best weather of the summer so far to the town. Arriving at Whitby railway station to cheers and applause, Miss Williams, from nearby Scarborough, ran straight on to the platform to a waiting steam engine, the Green Knight.
After pausing for pictures on the footplate, she boarded the train along with 220 local schoolchildren for the next 20 miles of the relay across the North York Moors - Britain's biggest expanse of heather moorland.
Earlier, the relay set off from Middlesbrough's famous Transporter Bridge on Day 31 of its tour around Britain and Ireland.
The train headed out of Whitby to more cheers and its first stop was Grosmont - HQ of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway - where the famous engine Sir Nigel Gresley coupled up to take it to its final destination, Pickering.
