Members of the Sheppey Event Marshalling Unit have been rubbing shoulders with a double Olympic champion at a trade fair.

The group was organising the parking for the B2B Conference and Exhibition in Tonbridge last Wednesday.

Six members of the team went along and while there they greeted guest speaker Dame Kelly Holmes when she arrived.

Chairman David O’Neill said they chatted with the runner before she went in and again when she left.

She even put money behind the bar for all the marshals to enjoy a bacon roll when they had finished their shift.

Mr O’Neill, of Delamark Road, Sheerness, said she was very easy to talk to and drove herself there without any ‘people’.

“She’s a very, very nice person,” he said. “She’s so down to earth it’s unbelievable.

“My son Keith had done some work for her a week or so ago and she remembered him and said he was very good.

“I could have spoken to her for hours – it was great.”