TWO south Essex residents are getting excited after being picked to carry the Paralympic torch this summer.

Terri Bush, 44, from Bowers Road, Benfleet, and Liam Hand, 23, from Ferry Road, in Hullbridge, were chosen from hundreds of hopefuls to take part in the Paralympic torch relay.

Terri has worked as a volunteer with the Royal National Institute of Blind People for more than 20 years and has single-handedly raised £75,000 by collecting and selling used stamps. The charity nominated five people, including Terri, to be torchbearers after being contacted by Lloyds TSB, a presenting partner of the relay.

Terri said: “It was a total surprise to be chosen and a tremendous honour. I’m thrilled and I’m looking forward to my stretch of the run enormously. My family are absolutely over the moon. Normally they would be embarrassed, but not this time.”

Haidee Roberts, community fundraiser executive at RNIB said: “Terri not only deserves this fantastic opportunity, she deserves a huge vote of thanks from the thousands of blind and partially sighted people that she’s helped over the last twenty years.”

Liam Hand, 23, who works at Sainsbury’s at Rayleigh Weir, was nominated as one of just 45 Sainsbury’s workers to carry the Paralympic torch after an in-store nomination at his local store.

He was nominated for his involvement in raising awareness of Paralympic sport across the East of England.

He said: “I am so excited to have been nominated. I’m really honoured to be taking part in a momentous occasion for both the United Kingdom and Essex and can’t wait.”

Sainsbury’s chief executive Justin King said: “It’s an honour for me to meet Liam and his commitment to the community was one for the key reasons that he was nominated. I am thrilled Liam will be representing Sainsbury’s in this once-in-a-lifetime occasion.”

The flame will be carried by the torchbearers on a 24-hour relay from Stoke Mandeville, in Aylesbury, to the Olympic Park, in Stratford, on August 28.