Retired businessman Peter Harrison - who founded and is a trustee of the Peter Harrison Foundation - helped get the appeal at St. James's Palace in London off the ground by pledging to support the BPA to the tune of £500,000.
 
The aim of the appeal will be to raise funds for the organisation through contributions from individuals, charitable foundations and company charitable giving. 

Donors will receive a variety of non-commercial benefits by becoming a member of the appeal.
 
The money raised through the appeal will help give Britain’s Paralympic athletes the best possible chance of competing and winning medals at future Games.
 
President of the BPA, Mike Brace, said: “Since the first Paralympic Games in 1960, Britain has consistently been among the top performing nations.
 
“Since then the Paralympic movement has grown tremendously across the world. The sporting bar is continually being raised in the Paralympic arena so the challenge to stay at the top has never been so intense with competition coming from, not only the usual leading competitors from Australia and the USA, but also from other emerging nations such as South Africa, the Ukraine and China.
 
“In order for Britain to stay competitive the British Paralympic Association need to ensure that athletes have the best possible opportunities to create lifetime best performances and that new emerging athletes are constantly being identified and helped to develop.
 
“In order to achieve this task and help our top athletes to achieve their potential we need the funds to pay for support services and structures, which our top athletes require and deserve to compete on the world stage.
 
“The money raised through this appeal will help us nurture and support our athletes so that they can put in medal winning performances in Beijing in 2008, Vancouver in 2010 and in front of a home crowd at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.”