IF you don’t want to read a grumpy article about how much the Olympics cost compared to the poverty-stricken lives people lead, at least we can all enjoy these photos of the special day that the torch came through London ­­– and Diana Gould’s role in it.

She was the 100-year-old who took the light through Hendon as the oldest participant on the pre-Games relay.

She was known in our patch at the St John’s Wood Liberal Jewish Synagogue, as she carried the torch on part of its journey through the city.

Asked to divulge the secret of a long life, by the pack of reporters who wanted an interview with the great-grandmother, she said: “I’ve never felt old, I am not an old person – 100, all right it’s a high number, but I am not old.

“It’s a mind thing. I don’t feel any different to when I was 50.”

And to be fair as she zipped up the Olympic tracksuit for the relay, ‘Number 59’ seemed more energetic than a lot of people half her age.

Always an inspiration, she had taken up badminton in her 70s and was involved in keep-fit classes past the big one hundred.

She died in 2018 having been a witness to a century of changes, often recalling horse-drawn buses in Shoreditch. Diana had arrived from her native Poland as a baby and was brought up in Bethnal Green. Harrington wondered how she ended up supporting Chelsea!

It was a delightful day with the torch ­– one even a prize Olympic cynic could not help but be touched by.