The unit first opened its doors on February 2, 1944, when it was the first specialist unit of its kind dealing with the treatment of patients paralysed through injury or disease of the spine. The first patient admitted to the centre was Harry Collier who cut a cake on the first anniversary.

Then, as now, the major cause of spinal injury was road accidents and about half the patients admitted were under 30.

Sir Ludwig Guttman led the set up of the spinal injuries centre at the request of the government and four years later he set up the Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games which eventually lead to the paralympic games in 1960.

Joan Scruton was Mr Guttman's secretary and she wrote in the preface to her book Stoke Mandeville Road to the Paralympics: "The National Spinal Injuries Centre, where the work pioneered by Dr (later Sir) Ludwig Guttman and his staff revolutionised the whole treatment and outlook for patients with spinal cord injuries (paraplegics and tetraplegics), hitherto regarded as with but a short expectation of life, rapidly became world renowned."

In the 1980s the building cost £10 million, money that was raised through the Jimmy Savile Appeal which launched on January 23, 1980.
Nearly two years later Prince Philip visited Stoke Mandeville to lay the foundation stone marking the start of construction work that would last for 28 months.

At first the unit was under the control of the Ministry of Pensions, then it went to the Ministry of Health for two years before being taken on by the Oxford Regional Hospital Board in the NHS with the direct administration of the Royal Buckinghamshire and Associated Hospitals Management Committee.

The transition to the NHS was a difficult time for the centre, struggling to keep its national identity.

Sir Ludwig battled for the centre on a number of occasions and rarely failed to get his way. In one incident there was concern raised about the high cost of food for the spinal centre from the finance officer. Sir Ludwig told him that patients with spinal cord injuries spend a long time in hospital, often years, but his new treatment methods, including diet, meant that patients could be out of hospital within three months. He is reported to have added: "Zat is not expensive, is it?"

What are your memories of the Spinal Injuries Centre?

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