On 14 July, the 2012 Roadshow will stop at the Stoke Mandeville Stadium in Aylesbury, Great Britain, to inform and inspire people about the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Part of the visit will also be an international Archery event for athletes with a disability and a sports festival for children with a disability, organized by the British Wheelchair Archery Association, the Buckinghamshire Sports Partnership and WheelPower.

Stoke Mandeville is nicknamed the ‘Home of the Paralympics’. In 1944, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann founded the National Spinal Injuries Centre at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He introduced sport as a form of recreation and as an aid for remedial treatment and rehabilitation for ex-servicemen and civilians with a disability.

On 28 July 1948, the day of the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in London, the Stoke Mandeville Games were founded, and the first competitions for athletes with spinal cord injuries took place. From then on, the Stoke Mandeville Games were held annually. In 1952, Dutch ex-servicemen joined the movement and the International Stoke Mandeville Games were established. These took place every year in Stoke Mandeville. In 1960 these Games were staged for the first time in the same country and city as the Olympic Games and have gone down in history as the ‘First Paralympic Games’.

The 2012 Roadshow event started on 6 July, a year after London won the bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012, with a special 2012 bus setting off from Trafalgar Square in London, Great Britain. Covering 3,000 miles, the Roadshow is now visiting major cities, Games venues and sporting events across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Representatives from London 2012, the Government and the world of sport take part to help explain the benefits of hosting the Games for the whole of the UK and encourage people to get involved. The programme will highlight the economic benefits for businesses, as well as a strong focus on tourism, volunteering and cultural events.

The Roadshow is being organized by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the London 2012 Organizing Committee, in conjunction with the Olympic Delivery Authority, London 2012's Nations and Regions Group and the Greater London Authority. It is supported by the British Olympic Association, the British Paralympic Association, the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales and the Northern Ireland Office.

The last stop for the bus is Liverpool on 27 July, exactly six years before the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Games. For more information, please visit the official website of London 2012 at www.london2012.com.

The London 2012 Roadshow bus visits Stoke Mandeville Stadium. Photo: John Credland (www.johncredland.co.uk).