The National Paralympic Heritage Trust, now in its sixth year, was delighted to be one of three recipients across the County of one of the Tree of Trees sculpture by Thomas Heatherwick, a work installed in Buckingham Palace grounds celebrating the Platinum Jubilee of the late Queen Elizabeth II earlier this year.

There was a total of 350 trees distributed across the country to organisations for their good work. In our case it was because of our project “Singing for the Queen” in collaboration with the Aylesbury based theatre group ‘I Have A Voice Too!’ (a group for adults with learning needs).

This project saw the theatre group and their Director Sebastian Lister, work with musician and Paralympian Robin Surgeoner to create a piece of music and song to celebrate the Queen’s and other Royals’ contribution to disability sport, especially the Commonwealth Games and Paralympics. The song can be downloaded on Spotify or from our website www.paralympicheritage.org.uk

We (the Trust and I Have a Voice Too!) are incredibly thankful to Countess Elizabeth Howe, the Lord Lieutenant and Royal Palace for this donation, now planted at Stoke Mandeville Stadium, the birthplace of the Paralympic Games and the home to our Paralympic museum, where the pot from the sculpture is displayed. We also thank WheelPower – British Wheelchair Sport, the National Health Service and Serco for the permission to plant the tree on this important site. We greatly value working with our community to celebrate local heritage.