Launched on August 23 by Greg Nugent, the former London 2012 marketing director, the campaign was quickly supported by some high-profile Paralympic athletes, such as American wheelchair racer Tatyana McFadden and sister Hannah.

It came about amid flailing ticket sales for the Paralympics, with the IPC revealing last month that only 12 per cent of tickets had been sold for the Games.

Interest eventually began to pick up though with prices slashed, and although organisers failed to hit their target of 2.5 million ticket sales, the 2.1 million sold in total makes Rio 2016 the second most successful Paralympic Games behind London 2012.

Financial services provider Allianz, a long-time partner of the IPC, became the first corporate supporter and spurred on others, including Samsung, to do the same.

Sir Philip has given thanks for the backing of partners such as Allianz, which saw 3,000 school children alone able to sit in the stands.

"You could see the smiles on the faces of many of these children as they were able to attend the Games for the first time thanks to this initiative," he said.

"The children were in awe as they saw the power of Paralympic sport first hand and this will no doubt help our efforts to build a more inclusive society."

Thousands of fans joined corporate supporters in donating as well as high-profile donors, including Prince Harry, British pop-rock band Coldplay, actor Ed Westick and Chinese pianist Lang Lang.

All funds went to the Paralympic Movement’s global governing body and the Agitos Foundation, the IPC’s development arm, which distributed the tickets to the Brazilian youth as well as people with an impairment.

"We consider this campaign a valuable part within our support of the Paralympic Movement, which we joined 10 years ago, and are happy to have contributed to making the Games in Rio a memorable event," said Jean-Marc Pailhol, head of group market management and distribution at Allianz.

Earlier this month, Rio 2016 and the Rio de Janeiro State Government partnered to provide Paralympic tickets to 33,000 local teenagers.

The initiative was organised through the Rio 2016 education programme, Transforma, who were tasked with promoting the Olympic and Paralympic values to seven million young people in Brazil.

They have attempted to promote Olympic and Paralympic sports in more than 12,000 schools, through a series of sports festivals.