Stoke Mandeville Post Box Gets a Lick of Golden Paint

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A Royal Mail post box opposite Stoke Mandeville Hospital on Lower Road will be painted gold in honour of today's historic Flame Festival and the start of the 2012 Paralympic Games.

Royal Mail announced they would paint gold a post box from every gold medal-winning athlete at London 2012.

Stoke Mandeville gets one because of its unique claim to fame; of being the birthplace of the Paralympic movement.

Dr Ludwig Guttmann, a refugee from Nazi Germany, worked at the hospital and used sport to rehabilitate spinal injured soldiers returning from World War 2.

He held the first official Stoke Mandeville Games in 1948 to coincide with the Olympic Games which that year were taking place in London.

The so-called 'parallel' games eventually became the Paralympic Games and this year, host city London will hold the biggest ever Paralympic Games and they will be the first to sell-out.

Royal Mail will continue to paint some of its much-loved red post boxes gold to celebrate every ParalympicsGB gold medal win during the London 2012 Paralympic Games. The UK is the first country to paint post boxes gold to celebrate Paralympics gold medal wins.

Individual first class stamps featuring athlete’s images will also be produced. The stamps will be on sale in over 500 dedicated Post Offices across the UK within five working days of each gold medal win and at a further 4,700 branches thereafter.

So all that's left to say is "Go ParalympicsGB!"