How Colin Jackson became my Nearest and Dearest

How not to act when attending a Press Conference with National Media Coverage:

1. Nearly trip up one of the Paralympic Champion’s children

2. Walk into a room filled with professional looking people saying “Oh I’m just here for Colin Jackson”

3. Proclaim to a casually-at-ease pair of women “Oh my God, you are THE Susanna and THE Jen. Oh My God, you are BritMums“. Without first swallowing the mouthful of cake.

4. Drink two cups of coffee in quick succession from nerves and then find yourself unable to concentrate on the presentation itself because you need the loo, and you are sitting in front of half a dozen video cameras.

5. Ask THE Colin Jackson if you can touch him. Even if you were ‘encouraged’ by the aforementioned calm-as-you-like we-do-this-all-the-times doyennes of Mummy Bloggerati.

I thought you might appreciate the helpful tips should you ever be invited by P&G, as part of their Proud Mums Campaign, to attend the culmination of over two years’ work by both the British Olympic Association, British Paralympic Association and P&G. Never having worked in the media, marketing or promotional world, it felt like the Oscars to me. I gasped when it was announced that, as part of their sponsorship deal, P&G would provide every athlete with tickets for their Nearest and Dearest to attend their event. I blushed when asking the Number One European T35 100m and 200m sprinter Sophia Warner a question about juggling motherhood and being an International Athlete. I almost cried when Keri-Anne Payne, the first British Athlete to qualify for Team GB, talked about how much she owed her parents. And I may have drooled over Colin. But he did smell really nice.

 

With thanks to THE Susanna (and Steve Jobs) for her excellent iPhone pictures commemorating the moment when I got to touch one of my biggest Childhood Crushes.