A fundraising Perthshire adventurer says he will be too disgusted to watch the Olympic Games after being wrongly deprived of a chance to carry the Olympic torch through Tayside.
Jock McInnes, from Scone, who has raised more than £1 million for charity, had been shortlisted for the honour but was stunned to learn that organisers thought he had turned them down.
Thousands of worthy local people will carry the torch on its route through the United Kingdom ahead of the games starting on July 27.
A former Black Watch sergeant, Jock (54) had high hopes that his tireless charity work would see him rewarded with a section of the Tayside route on June 12.
But his Olympic dreams were dashed by an apparent administrative bungle which happened during his most recent charity adventure in the Far East.
He said: ”I was in Mongolia doing a charity trek and I was nominated to carry the torch, which I thought was a lovely gesture. I was told I had been shortlisted and I emailed back thanking them and saying what an honour it was.
”I then heard nothing back and, when I got in touch again, I was told I would have to re-register, which made no sense.
”I passed this on to my MP (Pete Wishart) and he investigated, and got a reply from the sports minister saying I had told them I wasn’t interested in taking part, which was just nonsense, 100% wrong.
”There has been a breakdown in communications because they said they dropped me an email and tried to get in touch, but I didn’t get back to them. That’s not true because I have a mobile phone and I’m never off the email and I didn’t get anything.”
Jock’s love affair with the summer games is now over as he demands an apology for being robbed of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
”Even if they offered me something now, I wouldn’t take it because I don’t like to be an afterthought and I wouldn’t want to think I was depriving someone else,” he said.
”I won’t even be looking at the Olympics when it’s on in the summer because I feel so let down and disappointed by them.
”Maybe it’s because they’re away down south and don’t care about the ‘little people’ up here. It’s left me sick that they are saying I didn’t want to do it.”
Jock is set on raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity after trips to the likes of the Gobi Desert, Mount Elbrus in Russia and Kilimanjaro helped him gain his first million.
Now training for a trek across the world’s harshest desert next year, he said: ”I’m now focused on 2013, when I will be taking people to the Sahara Desert, and will never give up on my charity work. But the Olympics organisers have sickened me.”
Anne Marie Russell is helping to organise the trip. She nominated Jock for the torch honour and said: ”He definitely accepted it and I’ve got the emails to show that. He wouldn’t have been bothered if he didn’t get it fair and square but it is upsetting him that he’s missed out through this.
”After raising £1 million over the years, he would have been perfect. Now he just wants a bit of courtesy or an apology.”
No one from the Olympic procession organising committee was available for comment.