What a Baton Relay!

25 July 2002

Kirsty Howard hands the Baton to Her Majesty The Queen

After an epic 137-day journey of 63,000 miles across the Commonwealth and the UK, The Queen's Jubilee Baton Relay reached its final destination - the City of Manchester Stadium - where seriously ill young heroine Kirsty Howard handed the Baton to Her Majesty The Queen with the help of footballing superstar David Beckham.

The Queen then took her message from within the Baton and declared the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games open.

On its journey across the world from Buckingham Palace to Manchester the Baton had been carried by 5,000 Runners.

The vast majority of the Runners were ordinary people who had worked in an extraordinary manner on behalf of good causes.

This section captures the Baton's journey with those special people.

Use the links on the righthand menu to navigate around the different sections of the Baton site and view a pictorial history of The Queen's Jubilee Baton Relay.