Austin explained that it begun when he was 18 living in Oxford and he volunteered to put up decorations at the Wingfield Morris Hospital which is now the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre.

"I'm from Hastings originally and moved to Oxford in 1947," he told the Buckinghamshire Advertiser.

"When I went to the hospital, I discovered they had the very first handicapped scout troop in the world so I joined it and later became scoutmaster.

"We had blind boys and physically-handicapped boys and I thought about what games we could play to make it more fun for them so I started all sorts of games they could do in wheelchairs and spinal column carriages.

"We had blind wheelbarrow races, where the person pushing was being given directions by the person in the wheelchair.

"The kids, who were about 11 to 16 and had a variety of illnesses like polio and tuberculosis in the bones, loved it.

"In 1948, I challenged Stoke Mandeville Hospital to an archery competition.

"They had lots of injured servicemen after the Second World War there.

"There was a surgeon called Ludwig Guttmann who thought this was a good idea and wondered what other games we could do.

"He was credited with starting the Paralympic Games – he took over our ideas and developed them."

After a period of development in Stoke Mandeville, the Paralympic Games were first officially held in Rome in 1960, leaving Austin to bask from afar in the part he played.

Austin explained that the disabled children he worked with inspired him by the way they turned their hand to sports.

"It was amazing to me to what kids completely encased in plaster could do in those days," he continued.

"We even used to play skittles.

"I'd click my fingers and the blind boys would bowl the ball to where they heard the click – a lot of the time they'd be better than those with sight.

"There were also kids in iron lungs.

"You had power cuts in those days, so we had to do relays through the night to keep pumping the iron lung manually to keep them alive."

Austin admits that he had hoped to attend the London 2012 Paralympic Games in person but that it may not happen.

"I wrote to Seb Coe [the London 2012 chairman] and told him of my story and how I inspired the Games and asked for tickets," he said.

"I just got a letter back saying I would have to apply through the usual channels, which I did but I didn't get tickets, which was a shame.

"I think it's fantastic what people can do.

"What amazes me is the spirit of disabled people, the rowers with no legs who have just gone across the Atlantic, for instance.

"It's outstanding how people overcome their disabilities.

"The handicapped sport world has changed tremendously – it's as much about competing against yourself to achieve as much as other competitors.

"I really like the wheelchair races.

"The effort they put in and how they push themselves to new challenges is far in excess of able-bodied people."

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