Heather Fell, Olympic modern pentathlete silver medalist, writes about her life 'on and off' the track.

IT has been a busy week for the South West. There have been large events taking place such as the Devon County Show and the Olympic torch relay — as well as national sporting headlines from our local Olympians in the diving and sailing. It is times like this that I'm not only proud to be British but also proud to be a Westcountry girl.

I may not have been a torchbearer but I was incredibly lucky to be involved in the torch relay, and in more than one capacity. On Saturday night I spent four hours on Plymouth Hoe absorbing the atmosphere and reporting live amongst the crowd for BBC Radio Devon. Despite a few technical hitches — and some cringe worthy filling in on my part — it was an incredible evening. I was released from radio duties for half an hour in order to represent Team GB as an Olympian on stage. It was an incredible honour to be interviewed in front of thousands of people only minutes before the torch arrived. I made the most of this opportunity and sneaked back onto the stage to witness the lighting of the cauldron, which was just metres away.

Outside of all the sport related excitement I have a few other events to look forward to this summer, including a handful of weddings. As expected, some of them will unfortunately be clashing with training or competitions, therefore I am making the most of the opportunity to be as involved as possible in the preparations. There are not too many areas that I can specialise in but this weekend I was in my element — it was the choosing of the cake, and yes — plenty of sampling was essential!

Times readers can be updated on what Heather is up to via?her social networking site twitter:heatherfellnews