A former paralympic and talented manager, he helped transform the landscape of a handicap sport by his tireless representation of interest and inclusion and his legacy as one of the founders of the British Table Tennis Association for Handicapped, now known as British Para Table Tennis.
Chairman of the British Para table Tennis Adele Stach-Kevitz said: “Philip Lewis was the basis of the sport and will be very missed. Our deepest compassion will go to his family, and we will always be grateful for his incredible and sustainable legacy.”
Lewis, born in 1938, suffered a broken neck in a car accident in Oxford in 1962, which resulted in a level C6/C7 vertebral column that later became a C8/T1 complete spinal cord slut. In the National Spinal Injuries Center in Stoke Mandeville, he came under the care of Dr. Ludwig ‘Poppa’ Guttman and as a sharp sportsman he recorded archery and table tennis to help his rehabilitation. A year later he participated in the National Stoke Mandeville competitions and in 1964 he represented Britain in the Paralympic Games in Tokyo in the swimming and table tennis events.
Table tennis was the sport in which Lewis achieved the greatest success and he went to win gold in double with Paul Lyall and Bronze in the Singles on the 1966 Commonwealth games in Jamaica, a silver medal at the Paralympic Games of 1972 in the Paralympic Games in New Zeelt in New Zaland.
At the time of his accident, Lewis worked as a trainee lawyer. In the early 1970s he was elected chairman of the British Sports Association for the Southern Region of the Disabled (BSAD), where he started a program to set up clubs with multiple sports, multidisabled clubs in all major cities in the south, including the Windsor and Maidenop Sports, that is a fellow -handed sportshead sportshead, that is a very high -handed sportshead sportshead, which is a very high -handed sportshead sportshead, in the event of the sporthead sportshead, in the event of the manichaead sportshead, in the event of the sporthead sportshead, in the event of the manichaead sportshead, in the event of the manichaead, which is a lot of the sporthead sportsheads, which is a lot of the sporthead sportsheads, which is a lot of the sporthead sportsheads, which is a lot of the sporthead, which is a lot of the sporthead sportsheads, which is a lot of the sporthead sportsheads, which is a lot of the sporthead sportsheads, which is a lot of the manichadies for the manichadies. Paralympic movement offered.
He became chairman of BSAD, who is now known as Activity Alliance, and was an honorary member of the Sports & Recreation Alliance. Lewis was also in the National Sports Council for six years and his service for Disability Sport was recognized in 1981 when he received the MBE.
In 1983 he played an important role in reading Half Marathon and became one of the first city races with wheelchair athletes and later that same year he worked with Chris Brasher to ensure that wheelchair teases had a place at the start of the London Marathon – a tradition that continues today.
Lewis founded chairman of BTTAD from 1993 to 2003 and became president in 2015 and was also vice president of Table Tennis England.
Peter Taylor, vice-president and former chairman of BTTAD, said: “Philip was not only the founder of BTTAD, now BPTT, he was the most important instigator in his creation that brought all the handicaps into a sport-specific organization. This was not an average performance between the friction between the time of wheelchair and BTADs organizations in the course of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the time of the John Jo John. organization.
BPTT vice -president and founder of Vice -chairman of Bttad John Jenkins Mbe brought this tribute: “My great friend, Philip Lewis Mbe, was a real power in the development of Disability Sport, his stubborn Wentacity after his belief in the principle of ‘Sport for everyone, Handicapped or not.
Lewis has never forgotten the debt he and so many others owed to Sir Ludwig Guttmann and together with fellow parapegic Mike Mackenzie, he founded the Poppa Guttmann Trust, who collected money for a memorial statue and bust of the pioneer doctor. These were unveiled in 2012 at the Stoke Mandeville Stadium to coincide with the London 2012 Paralympic Games and the statue later became a permanent fixture outside the National Spinal Paluries Center. The bronze bust was presented to the International Paralympic Committee during the London Paralympic Games, which would recognize Guttmann’s inheritance and contribution to disabilities worldwide.
“Philip was an inspiration for everyone who knew him,” said Mike Smith, Vice President and former secretary of BPTT, “and his performance live on in the British Para table tennis of today and the future.”
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