The Royal Mail will issue a separate commemorative stamp for every British gold medal winner at the Paralympic games after accusations that the company were treating the athletes as second class citizens.
Previously the Paralympics winners were to be celebrated in a set of six stamps, unlike Olympians Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah who were honoured with their own design.
Many have welcomed Royal Mail’s U-turn, insisting that the decision will have an important effect on the public perception of Paralympic athletes.
The Chief Executive of the British Paralympic Association, Tim Hollingsworth, said he was “delighted” with the company’s recognition:
“We thank Royal Mail for reconsidering this proposal. We hope that the whole nation will continue their support of British athletes and cheer us on to many gold medals."
Andrew Hammond, the Managing Director of Royal Mail Stamps, said their original decision had been overturned simply because “it was the right thing to do.”
However he admitted the project would pose a “huge logistical challenge” because of the amount of gold medals that ParalympicsGB are expected to win. He added:
“Just as our Olympians outperformed expectations, we are confident that our Paralympians will also outperform. That would see us issuing many more individual stamps than the 29 printed over the London 2012 Olympics fortnight.
“This is a huge logistical challenge and we will get the Gold Medal stamps for sale as quickly as possible to a network of Post Office branches around the country and certainly within five working days of a win.”
Individual Gold Medal stamps will be issued to the Paralympic winners for the first time since the Paralympic Games were founded in 1948 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.
The shadow Olympics minister Tessa Jowell had waded into the row over the stamps earlier on Wednesday, writing a letter to the chief executive of the Royal Mail.
Urging the company to reconsider its policy, she wrote: “The stamps for Team GB's gold medallists have been such an emblematic part of this nation's celebrations during the Olympic Games. It would be a shame if this important symbol was not offered to our Paralympian heroes as well."