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Former boxer Michael Watson says he is "over the moon" to be being chosen as a Paralympic Flame bearer.

It is almost 21 years since he was left with a brain injury and paralysed after a fight with Chris Eubank in September 1991.

The super-middleweight was not expected to live. He needed six operations and spent 40 days in a coma.

It was six years before he started to walk again, yet incredibly in 2003 he completed the London Marathon, walking two hours each morning and afternoon for six days.

The 47-year-old will carry the torch through London's Trafalgar Square next Wednesday during the 24-hour Paralympic torch relay.

Watson, who now has reduced mobility to the left side of his body, said: "I am over the moon and very, very proud to have been selected to carry the flame.

"It is a great honour and I would like to wish ParalympicsGB lots of success and medals."

Watson will be one of 580 torchbearers, running in teams of five, who will make up the relay.

At an average speed of 3.5mph they will be bringing the flame from Stoke Mandeville, the birthplace of the Paralympic Movement, to the opening ceremony at the Olympic Stadium.

Watson, who now devotes his time to charity work and inspirational speaking, was named as a torchbearer by the International Paralympic Committee, the movement's governing body.

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, an 11-time athletics Paralympic champion, will also be on his relay team along with London 2012's director of Paralympic integration Chris Holmes, who won nine Paralympic swimming golds.

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