Olympic medalist’s wish granted by Stafford Borough leader

The Leader of Stafford Borough Council has invited three of the area’s Olympic medalists to turn on the Christmas Lights.

t followed a radio interview when former Stone schoolboy, cyclist Dan Bigham, quipped that maybe he would ‘get to flick on the local Christmas Lights one day’ after winning a silver medal in the men’s team pursuit.

Now Councillor Aidan Godfrey has stepped in to invite Dan, and his fellow Paris Olympic silver medalists, canoeists Adam Burgess and Joe Clarke, to turn on the lights in Stafford in November.

All three attended Alleyne’s High School in Stone. The two paddlers started their sporting journey as youngsters at the hugely successful Stafford and Stone Canoe Club on the town’s Westbridge Park.

Joe was granted ‘Freedom of Stafford Borough’ in 2016 after winning gold at the 2016 Rio Games - and turned on the Christmas Lights in front of around 10,000 people in Stafford that year (pictured).

Adam and Joe spoke of their Olympic dream and gratitude to the local club when they were the guests of honour at the official opening of Westbridge Park following its £1.5 million transformation by the borough council earlier this year.

Adam came second in the Canoe Slalom while Joe was runner up in the Kayak Cross, in Paris.

The borough council leader led the tributes to the three Stone athletes at a meeting of senior councillors recently and said it was amazing all had been pupils at the town’s High School. 

He said: “I heard Dan mention in a radio interview about turning on Christmas Lights and I thought ‘we can make that happen’.

“So, we will be asking all three of these incredible athletes if they would like to do just that - in front of thousands of people, in the Market Square, in November where we can demonstrate just how proud we are of them and their achievements.”

He also added thanks to Freedom Leisure, who run the Christmas Lights switch on event on behalf of the council, for backing his idea to invite the Olympians.