BA rewards Great Britons

A real life Billy Elliott and a Services Disabled Ski team are this month's winners of the BA Great Britons Progamme launched by Sir Chris Hoy earlier this year. The BA Great Britons Programme is a £500,000 travel fund offering up to 180 free flights a year until 2012 to enable British budding talent to realise their dreams.

With more votes than any other entry, the Combined Services Disabled Ski Team will now fly to the Alps to visit training camps in preparation for the Europa Cup. The team consists of members from all three Armed Services who have either been wounded and lost limbs in Iraqi and Afghanistan, or non-battlefield injuries elsewhere.

The team include Captain Martin Hewitt PARA who was shot through the shoulder joint in Afghanistan and now competes as a one-armed skier, Mick Brennan Royal Signals who lost both legs above the knee in a suicide-bomb blast who competes as a mono-skier, and Trooper Stevie Shine Royal Tank Regiment who lost a leg in an Improvised Explosive Device incident - he competes as a three track-skier.

On behalf of the team, the Chairman Colonel David Eadie said: "These training sessions are essential for the team to prepare for and hopefully compete in the 2014 Paralympic Games. They are an extraordinary group of people who despite their horrific injuries show levels of dedication and drive to succeed beyond all comprehension. We are deeply touched by the support and votes across the services, community, family and friends, and of course the BA Great Britons Programme."

As the most popular single entry, 16-year-old Daniel Dolan from Widnes in Cheshire beat hundreds of applications to secure flights to Moscow this August to train at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy- one of the world's most renowned ballet schools.

Daniel previously attended Liverpool's prestigious Elliot Clarke Dance School and went on to achieve scholarship at the Hammond School in Chester at just 11 years old. Since then Daniel has been recognised on an international level, with invites to both the Boston Ballet School and Miami Ballet Academy and more recently won a scholarship to the Juilliard School in New York over the forthcoming summer.

An overwhelmed Daniel said: "This is such an honour, especially as only two other Brits have ever been invited to train with the Bolshoi Ballet Academy. With expensive training fees, the British Airways flights will be an unbelievable help. This really is the first step towards achieving my dreams of becoming an international dancer."

British Airways Global Sponsorship Manager Luisa Fernandez said: "The BA Great Britons Programme has taken off beyond all expectations. There have been so many interesting, credible and worthy applications that we felt compelled to honour two winners this time. Our ambition is to help British talent take off and want to help as many people as possible."

From the hundreds of destinations to choose from, New York proved to be the most popular location with over a third of applicants listing the Big Apple on their wish list. Los Angeles came a close second (17 per cent), followed by Tokyo (16), Aberdeen (8) and Mexico City (6) as inspiring cultural and sporting locations to visit.

With bi-monthly opportunities to secure free flights from now until 2012, there's still plenty of time to register or re-submit applications. For more information on the BA Great Britons Programme, or to apply please go to greatbritons.ba.com.