Day to back Olympics bid

London's Olympic bid is being boosted today with a series of initiatives to mark "2012 day".

Highlights include the lighting of the BT Tower in 2012 regalia, the launch of a new Royal Mail postmark and Olympic gold medallist Jayne Torvill encouraging people to take up ice skating.

The new "Back the Bid" postmark - which will be franked on up to 40 million letters a day - will run until next July when the winner of the five-horse race to host the Olympics is announced.

Bid leader Lord Coe called for more people to register their support for the capital. "The more registered support the bid has, the easier it is to demonstrate to the International International Olympic Committee the UK's support and passion to host the Games in 2012," he said.

Travellers at Heathrow, Stansted and customers at John Lewis in Oxford Street were being encouraged to jump through a "leap counter" to register their support.

Meanwhile Jayne Torvill was being joined by Mayor Ken Livingstone and paralympian Ade Adepitan at Somerset House to launch Silver Blades, a scheme to encourage the disabled, people over 50 and community groups to take up ice skating.