A former Kenilworth firefighter, who was forced to quit her job after being knocked off her bike by a car, has been nominated to carry the baton ahead of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Alison Insley, who is currently recovering from shoulder surgery following the accident, has been nominated because of her community work before and during the pandemic.

A member of the Covid-19 Kenilworth Support Group, an ardent charity fundraiser, a Covid-19 Community Champion and a former on-call firefighter, Alison fits all four criteria the organisers are looking for in their 2,022 baton bearers.

And having not been selected for the judging panel for the London Olympic baton relay, Alison is hoping her shoulder mends in time and that she is successful this time around.

"It is great to have been nominated, but what an honour it would be to carry the baton - and to carry it through Kenilworth would be even more amazing," said Alison.

"I got nominated in 2012 as well, but I didn't get through. And then when the baton came through Kenilworth I got a bit envious thinking 'that could have been me'."

She was nominated this year by her neighbour, Judith Marriott, who had seen first hand the work Alison has done for people in the community.

But with the organisers having to sift through thousands of nominations she is not getting ahead of herself.

"They are looking for 2,022 baton bearers and then you're thinking am I actually worthy," she said.

"There are a lot of people out there who have done a lot of good, so why is my story any better than anybody else's?"

As a keen squash player and coach the Commonwealth Games is particularly important for Alison, as the sport does not feature at the Olympics.

She added: "This means so much because the Commonwealth Games is the Olympics for squash.

"It is probably more important to me than the Olympics just because of that – it is the biggest platform the sport gets internationally."

But with nominations set to close on February 14 Alison is also encouraging residents to put forward any local person to be involved.

"Other people in Kenilworth will get nominated, there are definitely people that deserve it.

"So I'd just say to people, if you have somebody in mind, nominate them before it is too late."