NSIC 25th anniversary

17 Aug 2008

More than 150 invited guests, including former and current patients, staff and volunteer fundraisers, helped mark the National Spinal Injuries Centre’s (NSIC) quarter century in its current guise.

The NSIC moved into the centre as we know it today in 1983, following damage caused by severe weather to the old pre-fab wooden huts which had housed spinal cord injury patients since 1944.

Sir Jimmy Savile, the NSIC’s patron, spearheaded a £10m fundraising drive in 1980 to create a new facility, and in just three years the target was met.  The centre was formally opened by HRH The Prince of Wales.  Sir Jimmy, who continues to volunteer at the centre, told guests that he was delighted that so many people had returned to mark the occasion.

Sir Jimmy told guests: “"I came here all those years ago to open a small gala for a charity called the spastics society and I was so inspired by the work here that I became involved with the hospital and I've stayed ever since.”

Sylvia Nicol was among the original fundraisers and said she felt great pride.

She said: "Today I am very proud and very thrilled that so many people have come to celebrate the work. It's been 25 years when I have remained acutely interested in all this. I have never ceased to love this place and I've got the whole history of the appeal behind me."

The centre was founded in 1944 by Professor, later Sir, Ludwig Guttmann.  Sir Guttmann is widely regarded by many to be the founding father of the Paralympic sports movement after introducing sports as therapy to patients with spinal cord injury and encouraging inter-spinal unit competitions.