Horsham pair lead London 2012 Anniversary Games celebrations

The 39-year-old, of Wellwood Close, paraded the world’s finest distance runners, including Britain’s double gold medallist from London 2012 Mo Farah, into the Olympic Stadium on Saturday for the 3000m.

Mandy, who works as a chief display assistant at Sainsbury’s Horsham, performed her role in front of a capacity crowd of 65,000 people in London and is adamant she won’t be forgetting the experience any time soon.

She said: “I am used to moving displays around in the store so I was OK with the sign I was given to lead out the athletes.

“We were nominated for our charity work and one of my colleagues was Games Maker during the Paralympics.”

Mandy was one of almost 60 Sainsbury’s colleagues from across the UK to have led out an event across the three days of the Anniversary Games at the iconic Olympic Stadium.

Near neighbour and fellow Sainsbury’s Horsham employee Carol Fawcett, of Red Deer Close, also took centre stage in leading out the women’s 100m final on Saturday too.

Carol added: “The store manager Derek Boarer nominated us. We are both athletics fans so to get that kind of opportunity was amazing and I really enjoyed it.”

The Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games is the final event in the Sainsbury’s Summer Series. For more information on Sainsbury’s support of world class athletics and disability sport go to www.sainsburys-live-well-for-less.co.uk/occasions/anniversary-games/