Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson lights the Paralympic Heritage Torch with Kelly Gallagher MBE holding the wheelbarrow at the 2016 event © AVDC

The home of Paralympic sport is to host a special event as the countdown to Pyeongchang 2018 reaches 100 days.

The Stoke Mandeville Stadium, in Aylesbury, England, will see a day sporting demonstrations, talks and events including a flame lighting event in preparation for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

The event takes place on Friday March 2, just six days before the Games in South Korea.

The organising committee for this event includes the British Paralympic Association, the International Paralympic Committee, Aylesbury Vale District Council, Buckinghamshire County Council, Leap, the Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Sport and Activity Partnership along with WheelPower, the national charity for wheelchair sport.

Stoke Mandeville Stadium will host a flame lighting event in preparation for the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang. © Stoke Mandeville Stadium
Stoke Mandeville Stadium will host a flame lighting event in preparation for the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang. © Stoke Mandeville Stadium

AVDC Councillor Angela Macpherson said: “The Paralympic Heritage Flame events held at Stoke Mandeville Stadium to date have been world-class events which have elevated Aylesbury in the eyes of the sporting community and the world. 

"This year’s events will continue this tradition: giving disability sport, and our Paralympians, the attention and send-off they deserve.”

The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics will take place from 8 March to 18 March.

Back in 1948 the first ever organised athletic day for disabled athletes took place at Stoke Mandeville, alongside the London Olympic Games. 

The Stoke Mandeville Games, founded by neurosurgeon Sir Ludwig Guttmann on the lawns of Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, transformed into the global phenomenon that is now the Paralympic Games