Brenda Harvey-Jones with grand daughter Hannah Rose Strachan (3) sporting Canadian sportswear. Picture: Jon Guegan (00855536)

A JERSEYWOMAN will carry the Olympic flame on part of its 45,000 kilometre trek across Canada.

Brenda Harvey-Jones (60) won an online competition to be one of 12,000 runners to carry the torch on its way across the country ahead of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February.

The relay is the longest ever held for the Olympic Games, and Mrs Harvey-Jones is running a 300-metre leg near her home in Kelowna in British Columbia.

‘It is really exciting,’ Brenda said. ‘On its journey, 90 per cent of the population of Canada will be no further than an hour’s drive away from some part of the route – so virtually everybody in Canada has the opportunity of being that close to watching the relay.’

Brenda was born in Jersey and educated at Jersey College for Girls. She moved to Canada 14 years ago, where she works in sales and marketing, and has a realtor’s licence.

Brenda won her place on the rally after she pledged to support a food-bank in an online competition – her leg of the rally takes place at Enderby on 26 January at 3.18 pm (11.18 pm Jersey time).

The rally will last 100 days and has been sponsored by the Royal Bank of Canada and Coca Cola.

Her father was Jurat Geoff Hamon, the former Comptroller of Income Tax and Durrell chairman, who died in January.

She has two children and three grandchildren who still live in the Island, and who she is visiting for Christmas.