I joined the London 2012 bid team in February 2004 and worked in the International Relations team. It was our job to promote the bid not only in London but throughout the UK and around the world - we were clear, we wanted to inspire the youth of the world and welcome everyone to London in 2012. We hosted visits from Olympic and Paralympic bosses where they inspected everything we did in miniscule detail - from venue plans to athletes' dining, from ticketing strategies to bus timetables. On one of the visits we organised a viewing platform on the roof of a block of flats in Stratford - we even launched different coloured blimps into the air to highlight where each of our venues would be built. One of the highlights of the bid for me was being invited to Buckingham Palace and meeting The Queen. She asked me which other cities were in the running to host 2012 and did I think London was in with a chance? No doubt about it in my mind…
 
The vote was held in Singapore on 6th July 2005 and we were allowed 100 seats in the meeting room. We sent in delegates from the bid team, HRH The Princess Royal, Tony Blair, Ken Livingstone, Tessa Jowell as well as top athletes Matt Pinsent, Steve Redgrave, Tanni-Grey Thompson, Denise Lewis, Daley Thompson AND David Beckham. We wanted to prove that we could inspire a generation so we also took 30 school children highlighting how beneficial the Games coming to London would be for these kids.
 
The voting started about 4pm local time - throughout the afternoon the rest of us crowded round TVs on tenterhooks as Moscow, New York and Madrid were eliminated from the race one by one. It was down to London and Paris – my nerves couldn't take it. At 7pm our lives changed forever when Dr Jacques Rogge, IOC President, opened THE envelope and announced that London had won beating Paris by 54 votes to 50.
 
I will never forget the noise that erupted from the crowd at that moment - I don't really know what was said afterwards, we were all too busy screaming and jumping for joy. I cried… we all cried…… huge tears of joy and huge glasses of champagne! After nearly two years of hard work London 2012 had become a Host City and we couldn't wait to get started.