Just over ten years ago, a broken promise sparked something extraordinary in Buckinghamshire. When then-Mayor of London Boris Johnson's pledge to preserve London 2012's Paralympic legacy through an Olympic and Paralympic Museum fell through, a small group of determined individuals decided to act.

On 15th July 2015, these individuals came together, and the National Paralympic Heritage Trust was established. Its home would be at Stoke Mandeville - the birthplace of the Paralympic Movement.

Since 2015, the National Paralympic Heritage Trust has:

Supported 30 work placements and 4 paid part-time traineeships for local disabled people.
Welcomed over 1 million visitors from across the UK and internationally
Preserved 2,000 newly donated Paralympic artefacts and made 20,000 historical records accessible online (in partnership with Buckinghamshire Archives).
Hosted 44 'Meet the Paralympian' events offering schools and adults the chance to engage both with Paralympic Heritage and disability sport personalities.
Recorded 60+ oral histories from Paralympic athletes and pioneers
Became the world’s first ‘symbol-friendly museum’ in Feb 2025
Curated 7 regional exhibitions and 6 virtual tours, an interactive Digital Explorations Museum and 7 unique online virtual galleries as part of the NPHT’s Global Virtual Museum.

placeholder image — The National Paralympic Heritage Centre

But for CEO Vicky Hope-Walker, it's the personal transformations that matter most.

"We've watched young disabled people discover skills they never knew they had through our project work and digital programmes," she says. "We've seen our Museum Trainees become confident museum guides, oral historians and teachers. We've achieved lots as an organisation, but it’s been made far richer by the communities that have worked with us and shaped us along the way."

Beyond the Museum Walls

The Trust's impact extends beyond the physical walls of National Paralympic Heritage Centre, opened in 2019 at Stoke Mandeville Stadium. Their Global Virtual Museum launched in July 2024, allows the early history of the Paralympic Movement to be accessible from anywhere, at any time. It also showcases meaningful project work with local SEND schools and partner museums in Buckinghamshire and Hampshire where students learned skills in curation, 3D scanning and photogrammetry. The aim was always to ensure that this was a museum curated in the voice of those with a lived experience of disability, and therefore includes co-created audio descriptions and interpretations of historical objects in every gallery.

"We're not just preserving history," says Hope-Walker. "Every person who discovers something new about disability sport, every business that becomes more inclusive, every young person who finds their confidence – that's the legacy."

The NPHT is one of many organisations dedicated to working towards Bucks being the most accessible county for culture and has been quietly revolutionising the approach to accessibility and inclusion – openly sharing their practice with other museums and businesses. This summer they hope to achieve the government's highest Disability Confidence Leader status – recognition that their 'Becoming Seamlessly Inclusive' approach is setting new standards.

The Future

As the Trust enters its second decade, plans are already underway for three new virtual galleries, working with SEND students in London and partnering with Dwarf Sport UK. Meanwhile, the Heritage Trail app launched last summer allows locals to continue to explore Paralympic history around Stoke Mandeville independently, and on their own terms.

Of the next ten years, Vicky Hope-Walker says: ‘Inclusion will remain at the heart of everything we do,offering work placements and traineeships and career paths for young people with SEND and neurodiversity.Building on our wonderful community, sporting and funding partnerships we would like to co-create a fully accessible, immersive experience using our fantastic media collections, commissioning disabled artist interpretations and ensuring full sensory needs. And what if AI can help us programme those experiences to meet the diverse needs of our visitor and tailor them to their interests? Ambitious, groundbreaking but achievable!’

The National Paralympic Heritage Trust is proud to celebrate a decade of impact and thanks everyone in the Buckinghamshire community and across the country who has been a part of their journey so far. This milestone serves as motivating proof of what's possible when communities refuse to accept broken promises.