It has been over a decade since Stephanie Wheen set out to create the UK’s first play and leisure centre specifically designed for disabled children.

Over the past 10 years, she and her team have raised millions of pounds, meticulously researched how to make the centre as inclusive as possible and spent years trialling sessions with disabled children. And soon, the doors to Gympanzees will open for the first time.

“It’s been so long in the making – I try picturing it and it’s just a lot of smiley people. I expect families are going to be quite awestruck because it’s been made for them when they’re so used to there being nothing,” said Wheen.

The idea was born in 2016 out of Wheen’s work as a children’s physiotherapist in Bristol . With her sessions constantly fully booked, she tried to get the disabled children she worked with to do more physical activity in the community so they would not need to rely so heavily on her service.

But it did not work.…