The Queen’s baton relay will reach the Lakes this weekend as the country counts down to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in two weeks’ time.
Travelling via land, air and sea, more than 180 communities in England will have a chance to see the Queen’s baton on a route spanning 2,500 miles.
The relay began on October 7, 2021, with The Queen placing her message to the Commonwealth into the baton, before its journey across all 72 nations and territories of the Commonwealth.
The baton will first land in Cumbria on Saturday with the first leg of the Cumbrian route starting from Carlisle.
At 9am there will be a celebration event with the Unity Festival at Tullie House in Carlisle.
People will be able to see the baton from 9am.
And festival organisers have promised dancing, music, history tours, spoken word open mic, craft and making workshops.
Heading southwards the baton will travel to Brockhole on Windermere.
People have been invited to cheer the baton bearers along as they take part in a relay around the gardens and woodlands of Brockhole.
The baton relay will take place at the centre between 10am and 11:30am.
The baton will then head further south as it heads towards Blackpool.
Army veteran Lyndon Chatting-Walters, from Staveley, has been confirmed as a baton bearer in the Queen’s Baton Relay this summer.
Read more: Meet the Cumbrian chosen to carry the baton during the Queen's Baton Relay
In 2008, at the age of 18, Lyndon was serving in Afghanistan and came into contact with an IED, resulting in extensive injuries to his back, breaking four vertebrae.
Lyndon was told that he would struggle to walk again.
Despite this, he returned to the frontline attached to The Royal Gurkha Rifles in 2010.
Lyndon is now working as a climbing instructor in the Lake District, holding the Mountaineering Instructor Award and coaches with Leeds Beckett Universities Carnegie Great Outdoors team.
And the baton bearers at Brockhole include Ulverston’s Caroline Smith, one of the founder members of Ulverston Resilience Group.
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