The Poppa Guttmann Trust

MICHAEL MACKENZIE, Chairman

Spinal cord injured (T3c) in 1993 whilst working for an aid agency in Bosnia. Chairman of SIT (Spinal Injuries Together).  Director of Motorsport Endeavour. Referral Panel Leader for Oxfordshire Youth Offending Service. Researcher to Tony Baldry MP.

After a 21 year career in the wine trade he made the unlikely but worthwhile move to become The Director of Operations for Scottish European Aid, an aid agency specialising in Eastern Europe. A bit of a bump curtailed this new occupation earlier than planned.

An inveterate adventurer he has since participated in Skiing, scuba diving,
Relay St James wheelchair relay from Paris to Santiago de Compostela
The Island Race.  Charity relay around the coast of Britain.
Around the World in 80 Ways. Circumnavigated the globe with 2 blind people. www.aroundtheworldineightyways.com
Moscow Disabled Drivers Club Road Rally. Return solo drive to Moscow
A few more similar “consultant frightening” ideas are planned!

PHILIP LEWIS MBE, Trustee

 In 1962, aged twenty four, he broke his neck in a car accident in Oxford (Level C6/7 later lowering to C8/T1 complete).  As a patient of Sir Ludwig Guttmann he spent ten months undergoing treatment and rehabilitation at The National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville.

In business before accident and studied law afterwards becoming a solicitor. He took up Table Tennis and participated in numerous Paraplegic Games including Japan (1964 Paralympics), Jamaica (1966 Commonwealth), Germany (1972 Paralympics), New Zealand (1974 Commonwealth) and has gold, silver and bronze medals to prove it!
Member of the National Sports Council for six years. 
Chairman of The British Sports Association for the Disabled for many years.
Vice President of the English Table Tennis Association
In 1981 honoured by the Queen with MBE for Services to Sport.

LAURA BROADHURST, Trustee

Laura Broadhurst joined the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) in 2007, after a year and a half working with the International Organisation for Migration's (IOM) Return and Reintegration team in Sudan.

During her time at CARA, she was responsible for researching and organizing CARA's 75th anniversary conference and publication, The Refuge and the Fortress (by Jeremy Seabrook) and discovered more about the assistance given to Poppa Guttmann and his family by CARAs predecessor: the Academic Assistance Council. With their help, Poppa Guttmann fled Nazi Germany and took up a fellowship at Oxford University which led to him being asked to set up a spinal unit at Stoke Mandeville. Laura now runs the Zimbabwe Programme at CARA (further details about both these programmes can be found at www.academic-refugees.org) and is a Deployable Civilian Expert for the Government's Stabilisation Unit, a joint unit of the Department for International Development, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence.

SANDY JOHNSTON, Trustee

Sandy Johnston is a ‘cellist and a Fellow of Trinity College, London. She was The Director of Music at an independent school in the Cotswolds for many years and now continues to teach the ‘cello and piano freelance as well as playing with a number of string quartets and orchestras.

She has been a great and inspirational supporter of charities and has raised awareness and funding for these. She became engaged to Mike Mackenzie and learnt of the brilliant work and legacy of Poppa Guttmann and wanted to become involved in the project.