By Njoki Chege

As the world eagerly awaits the start of the world’s biggest sporting event, Olympics Games, a Kenyan woman is ecstatic for getting the honour to carry the games’ symbol.

Pamjeet Kaur Dadhiala, a 41-year-old accounts manager at British Airways, Nairobi, got the rare honour of being selected to carry the Olympics Flame, the symbol of the Olympics Games, just before the event begin later next month.

Thousands of people from across the world are nominated as possible torchbearers, but only a few get the rare honour.

The Olympics committee only selects inspirational people to carry the Olympics Flame.

nomination process

Permjeet is among four inspirational Kenyans who will have the golden opportunity to walk with the Flame.

Usually, the torchbearers are nominated by people who give solid reasons they think the nominated person should be among the chosen few.

Millions of people across the world are nominated for this role, and therefore it was not a surprise when a colleague at the British Airways nominated Pamjeet.

“The shocker came in November last year, when I received an e-mail congratulating me on being selected as one of the torch bearers. I thought it was a sick joke until it was confirmed,” says Pamjeet.

Pamjeet has since come to terms with the fact that out of the 500 nominations from British Airways, she had made it to the final list of 40 employees of British Airways worldwide.  She is the only Kenyan British Airways employee to get the opportunity.

“At first I felt a bit nervous since I thought I didn’t deserve it. I am, however, glad that life handed me this rare opportunity,” she says.

Her friends and family from all over the world have since been calling her, asking her how she got this rare opportunity. But she says it all began with a simple nomination from a colleague.

charitable efforts

A colleague of Pamjeet nominated her, writing about her charitable efforts that saw her help a disadvantaged young man through school, all the way through university in spite of having four children of her own.

Pamjeet recalls how several years ago, a young man approached her at a parking for money. At first, she thought he was not serious, until he handed her a list of books he needed for school.

“I thought he was one of the many people in the streets who ask for money, until he produced a list of schools books he needed that I realised there was more than meets the eye. He badly needed help.”

Pamjeet was touched and she asked him to meet her at a textbook shop in town later that week. True to her word, she kept her promise, met the young man, and bought the books for him.

Pamjeet would later realise that the young man could not raise his fees. She then educated him up to university level. This one act of kindness, would soon crop up later when a colleague of Pamjeet wrote the story while nominating her for the opportunity. 

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think that this would happen to me. I had never really paid much attention to the torchbearers until I was nominated. This is a lifetime opportunity,” she says.

Each torchbearer is required to walk with the Olympic Flame for at least 300m during the tour.

Olympic Flame

To begin its tour across Europe, the Olympic flame was first lit by the sun’s rays in Olympia, Greece, before starting an eight-day tour around Greece and arriving in Cornwall on May 18.

An hour-long lighting ceremony amid the historic ruins of the home of the ancient Games at the Temple of Hera in Olympia signalled the start of the relay around Greece.

The flame arrived in the UK at RNAS Culdrose, near Helston in Cornwall in the early evening of May 18. About 1,000 guests, the Press, and members of the local community were present as the arrival of the torch sparked an upsurge in enthusiasm for the Games among the British public.

Pamjeet is expected to leave Kenya on July 23, as her turn to carry the flame will fall on July 26, right before the Olympics officially starts.

Says she: “I am particularly looking forward to Kenya’s success especially in athletics and swimming categories where our sportsmen and women will be competing.”

A wife and a mother of four children aged between eight years and 19 years, Pamjeet says her family is her greatest support.

In their show of support, her family will be travelling with her to the United Kingdom to cheer and support her as she carries the flame.

-BBC