From a Wheelchair

This is a fascinating film warning that anyone can get a spinal injury, and showing how sports can help the work of rehabilitation. It was made at a time when those with any disability wishing to participate in sports had a much lower public profile. With the help of volunteers these users of Lodge Moor Spinal Unit Sports Club are able to get their specific needs met. We see wheelchair users playing a wide variety of sports and competing in the Stoke Mandeville Games in 1977.

Lodge Moor Hospital in Sheffield first opened in 1888, and started treating spinal injuries in 1954, before the hospital closed in 1994, with the spinal injuries units moving to the Northern General Hospital. The Sheffield Wheelchair Sports Club now also meets at the Northern General, as does a spin-off, Steelers Wheelchair Basketball Club which was founded in 1987 by a handful of ex-patients. This has gone on to build a worldwide reputation. The International Stoke Mandeville Games (now renamed the IWAS Games) began life in 1943 when Ludwig Guttmann set up a Spinal Injuries Unit to treat soldiers and civilians injured during World War II. The first games took place in 1948, kickstarting paraplegic sport.