Mandeville inspires 2012’s mascot name

20 May 2010

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust is delighted to learn that one of the 2012 mascots recognises the birthplace of the Paralympic movement. “Mandeville”, the name of one of the mascots, is derived from Stoke Mandeville Hospital, home of the National Spinal Injuries Centre (NSIC).

Stoke Mandeville Hospital is widely regarded as the birthplace of the Paralympic games movement and is still heavily involved with training and supporting paralympians to this day. Professor Guttmann, later Sir, began using sport as a vital ingredient in the rehabilitation of spinal cord injured WWII veterans at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, and on 29 July 1948 organised a competition for 16 paralysed men and women on the hospital’s lawns to coincide with the opening ceremony of the 1948 Olympic Games in London.

The Stoke Mandeville Games for wheelchair athletes began, and soon became an international competition. One of the movement’s most enduring athletes, 11-time gold medallist Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, is a former patient.

The NSIC offers inpatient and outpatient care to adults and children with spinal cord injuries, many arriving following a traumatic event. The centre treats patients from across England, as well as abroad. In 2009, the NSIC became the first unit in the UK and one of only five in Europe to receive a coveted international accreditation (CARF) for excellence in the care of adults and children with spinal cord injury.

For more information about “Mandeville” visit: http://www.london2012.com/mascots

Visit the NSIC website for more information: http://www.buckinghamshirehospitals.nhs.uk/spinal

For information on CARF accreditation for spinal injury services, visit their website at: http://www.carf.org/consumer.aspx?Content=Content/ConsumerServices/spinal.htm&ID=13

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust operates from three hospitals in Amersham, Stoke Mandeville and Wycombe. A wide range of high quality acute services are offered at all three sites, as well as some specialist services, including the National Spinal Injuries Centre (Stoke Mandeville), burns care and plastics sub-regional centre (Stoke Mandeville) and dermatology inpatient centre (Amersham).

The NSIC was founded in 1944 by neurologist Professor Ludwig Guttmann as a facility to treat service personnel who had suffered spinal injuries in World War II.