A six-year-old boy who raised more than £34,000 for charity after his paper Olympic torch was sold 60 times on eBay is delighted after the QUEEN agreed to be final ‘torchbearer’.
Enterprising Logan McKerrow made his model at school and decided to launch an ‘auction relay’ with all proceeds being donated to charity.
He first sold it for £21 and the buyer immediately re-listed it and sold it for £27.
The torch travelled 21,000 miles in 18 months to buyers all over the world including St Lucia, Luxembourg and Bulgaria.
Logan ended the relay at the 60th buyer and decided to send the torch to The Queen in the hope that she would become the 61st and final torchbearer in her 61st year as monarch.
He was stunned when he received a touching letter back from Her Majesty, who praised his “remarkable achievement” and said she was “glad to receive this special gift”.
Lady-in-Waiting Susan Hussey wrote: “Her Majesty was pleased to learn of Logan’s ‘Olympic Torch’ project, and thought it so kind of him to wish The Queen to be the sixty-first and final ‘Torch Bearer’ as the sixty-first year of her reign draws to a close.
“Her Majesty was glad to receive this special gift, and to see the photographs and information you enclosed.
“The Queen was most interested to know that Logan’s imaginative project has raised over £34,000 for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and her Majesty send him her congratulations on this remarkable achievement.”
Logan made the paper torch as a project in his reception year class at Avishayes Primary School in Chard, Somerset, last summer.
His mum told him how some of the official Olympic torchbearers were selling their torches for charity – and the schoolboy decided he wanted to do the same.
Logan then went onto Google and found a charity he wanted to back – Hearing Dogs for Deaf People – because he loves his mongrel pet Dexter.
With the help of his parents, they listed the item with a 99p starting bid in May 2012 under the headline: “For charity – Logan’s Olympic relay torch”.
The buyer, Nik Jason, 42, a househusband of Gloucester, then offered to re-list the item and auction it again before donating the proceeds of that sale to charity.
Over the following months, the torch sold dozens of times – with each seller donating the cash – and travelled from Jersey in the Channel Islands to the Highlands of Scotland to reach its buyers.
The highest selling price was £2,050 for the 4th buyer in the chain and one buyer even took it on holiday to St Lucia.
Logan, of Chard, has taken the torch to Downing Street and even met Lord Coe at the Olympics and David Beckham during the summer of 2012.
Logan, who lives with mum shop assistant mum Kerry, factory worker dad Andrew, 40, and sister Tamsin, seven, decided to end the sale at the 60th buyer because it reflects the Queen’s Golden Jubilee year.
Fittingly, the final buyer was Hugh Gray-Wallis, 63, of Helston, Cornwall, who is hub manager at nearby RNAS Culdrose where the real Olympic torch first entered Britain.
“What more fitting way for Logan’s Torch to finish its journey,” he said.
“My wife, Maggie is a new recipient of a Hearing Dog called Nero. Whilst waiting for it we followed the touching story of ‘Logan’s Torch’.
“When I spotted that it was up for sale for the 60th and last time, I couldn’t help but bid to make Maggie and Nero the 60th Bearers of ‘Logan’s Torch’ and bring it back to Culdrose, was just too good to miss!”
In early January Logan packed up the torch and sent it to Buckingham Palace along with a cover letter from his mum and sister Tamsin. Logan also enclosed a picture he had drawn of a castle being attacked by crabs – with the Queen depicted as a fairy.
And on January 7 Lady Hussey wrote back from Sandringham, where the Queen was spending her festive break.
Her letter added: “The Queen greatly appreciated the special picture which Logan has drawn for Her Majesty and the letter which his sister, Tamsin, has thoughtfully enclosed, and I am to thank you all, once again, for your kindness in sending the ‘Olympic Torch’ to The Queen.”
Kerry, 34, said: “We are all just so proud of him and it has been such an incredible journey. It was his dream that the Queen would be 61st and final owner of the torch and it is the perfect ending.
“I’m really pleased that the Queen went out of her way to write back and to include Tamsin in her reply, so she doesn’t feel left out.”
Logan said: “It’s awesome. It’s good that I’ve raised lots of money for the hearing dogs. I really wanted the Queen to have the torch and now so she can keep it forever.”
He is is aiming to reach a target of £50,000, which would fund the life of a guide dog from training to retirement.
To honour his efforts, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People has now named its latest doggie trainee ‘Logan’ in tribute.
* To donate to Logan’s appeal visit http://www.justgiving.com/
