Our Gympanzees Team
This is our Gympanzees team. These are the people who are going to ensure that we raise £8 million to transform our site into the UK’s first fully accessible exercise, play and social centre for disabled children and young people. Along the way, we’re also expanding our Lending Library to support thousands of families before the centre opens.
Together we will #MakeItHappen.
Our Mission
To enable every child and young person with a disability from 0-25 years old in the UK to access regular exercise, play and friendship, to improve their physical and mental health and wellbeing, and to take their families out of isolation.
Stephanie Wheen – Founder and CEO
Stephanie founded Gympanzees in 2016 after learning of the lack of accessible options for exercise and play for disabled children. Gympanzees has grown from an idea to the recent purchase of a 43,000 sqft building and the launch of a £8m capital appeal to transform it into the UK’s first fully inclusive leisure facility for disabled children. Gympanzees has won a host of awards, including a Queen’s Award for Innovation, and Stephanie has won a Prime Minister’s Points of Light Award, one of only two awarded in Bristol. Prior to founding Gympanzees, Stephanie worked as a disabled children’s physiotherapist for 20 years in the NHS and founded a private children’s physiotherapy practice in Bristol from 2012-2022.
Our Gympanzees Team
Our Trustees
Secretary - Liz Scholey - Retired GP
Our Ambassadors
Charles Wylde - Trustee and Governor for several Bristol organisations
Property Committee
Commercial Property Committee
Advisor - Spencer Crowder
Advisor - Bill Marshall
Advisor - Martyn Jones
Capital Campaign Committee
