Poppa GuttmannTrust
About the Trust

A permanent tribute

In 1944 the life expectancy for someone who sustained a spinal cord injury (SCI) was just 3 months. No treatment existed and people were left to die. This situation completely changed because of the founding of spinal cord injury treatment by Sir Ludwig “Poppa” Guttmann.

Sir Ludwig Guttmann, whilst honoured during his lifetime, has no permanent tribute to recognise and celebrate his outstanding work and legacy both at his National Spinal Injuries Centre (NSIC) and the Paralympic Games, which developed from an archery competition on the grass outside the NSIC for his patients on the opening day of the 1948 London Olympic Games.

The Poppa Guttmann Trust has tried to correct this long overdue absence of an acknowledgement of the esteem in which he is held. This has been achieved by establishing the following:

  1. 01

    Poppa Guttmann statue

    A life size bronze by sculptor Jacko, unveiled in June 2012 and installed outside the NSIC on 29th August 2013 – donated to the Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust.

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  2. 02

    A bust for the Paralympics

    A head and shoulder bust from the same mould was donated to the International Paralympic Committee, to be displayed at all future summer and winter Paralympic Games.

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  3. 03

    Arts Programme

    A qualified Arts Co-ordinator, Vivienne Gordon, was employed to bring the arts into the rehabilitation of NSIC patients.

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Trustees

Michael Mackenzie

Hon. LL.D, Chairman

Mike Mackenzie was spinal cord injured in 1993 whilst working for an aid agency in Bosnia during the war there.

After a 21-year career in the wine trade, he made the unlikely but worthwhile move to become the Director of Operations for Scottish European Aid, an aid agency specialising in Eastern Europe. A bit of a bump curtailed this new occupation earlier than planned. Having become paralysed and lost both legs above the knee, he has been occupied with a number of charities, Justice entities, had many adventures and worked closely with the National Spinal Injuries Centre as well as being a frequent patient.

Co-founder of this Trust.

Philip Lewis MBE

Trustee

Philip Lewis broke his neck in a car accident in Oxford in 1962, aged twenty four (Level C6/7 later lowering to C8/T1 complete). As a patient of Sir Ludwig Guttmann he spent ten months undergoing treatment and rehabilitation at the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville.

In business before accident and studied law afterwards, becoming a solicitor. He took up table tennis and participated in numerous Paraplegic Games including Japan (1964 Paralympics), Jamaica (1966 Commonwealth), Germany (1972 Paralympics), New Zealand (1974 Commonwealth) and has gold, silver and bronze medals to prove it!

Member of the National Sports Council for six years. Honorary member of the Sports & Recreation Alliance (formerly the CCPR). Former Chairman of the British Sports Association for the Disabled (BSAD) for many years. Vice President of the English Table Tennis Association (ETTA), President of the British Table Tennis Association for the Disabled (BTTAD). In 1981 honoured by the Queen with MBE for Services to Sport.

Claudia Zimmermann

Trustee

Claudia Zimmermann joined the Poppa Guttmann Trust in 2012, after working as an intern at the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA).

During her time at CARA, she was responsible for organising a joint project with the Poppa Guttmann Trust to celebrate the return of the Paralympic Games to Great Britain in 2012. Fascinated by Poppa’s story, she eventually became the project director for the Poppa Guttmann Recognition and Celebration Project.

Claudia holds Master’s degrees in social science from the universities of Graz and Oxford and now lives in Austria where she works at the Medical University of Vienna.

Sandy Mackenzie

Trustee

Sandy Mackenzie is a cellist and a Fellow of Trinity College, London. She was the Director of Music at an independent school in the Cotswolds for many years and now continues to teach the cello and piano freelance as well as playing with a number of string quartets and orchestras.

She has been a great and inspirational supporter of charities and has raised both awareness and funds. She became engaged to Mike Mackenzie and learnt of the brilliant work and legacy of Poppa Guttmann and wanted to become involved in the project. She married Mike in March 2013.

Former trustees

Laura Broadhurst

Former Trustee

Laura Broadhurst had a career in International Development, working in Kenya, Sudan and Zimbabwe for the non-governmental and governmental sector.

It was whilst working for CARA (Council for At-Risk Academics), running their international programme in Zimbabwe and researching the organisation’s 75 year history, that she came across Sir Ludwig Guttmann’s grant file in the CARA archives in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.

Intrigued to discover more, she resorted to the internet and found Mike Mackenzie’s name connected to the recently established Poppa Guttmann Trust! Mike met Laura in London and arranged for her to visit the NSIC. She then met Philip Lewis, a former patient of Guttmann’s, who said “If it wasn’t for CARA I wouldn’t have lived all these years after breaking my neck in 1962”.

In between trips to Zimbabwe, Laura supported the PGT as a Trustee before stepping down in order to help Philip with a different but related project: “Caring for long term spinal cord injury patients as they age: a patient survey”.

She is now a full time Mother to four young girls, married to Jack, a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at Winchester hospital.