Brave ex-biker gets his life back on track with a multi-million buyout of ‘miracle chair’ on the cards

Jun 19 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

A BRAVE Merseyside entrepre-neur who fought against night-mare adversity has designed the world’s lightest wheelchair.

Mark Beesley says his inven-tion will revolutionise how dis-abled people move around and could put him on track for a multi-million pound buyout for his company.

The amazing success of his Future Chair, built using Formula 1 engineering exper-tise, has been what he describes as a “miracle story”.

It began in black despair, in June, 1998, when the father-of-two was in a motorbike smash that left him paralysed from the chest down. His bike’s throttle stuck riding in St Helens and he ploughed into a car at 60mph.

“I remember looking at the sky and waiting for the bang. I knew I was paralysed; my legs wouldn’t work,” he said.

He spent nine months in Southport Hospital’s spinal in-juries unit and has endured pain and despair since.

Yet now, exactly a decade since the accident, and just seven weeks after launching the Future Chair with business partner Marcus Cunnington, at the NAIDEX show in Birming-ham, he has taken more than £40,000-worth of orders.

Every day sees him taking calls from dealerships – from the US to Taiwan – wanting to market his design.

Last week, Mark and Marcus met with a bespoke wheelchair manufacturer interested in tak-ing over the firm. Mark says he thinks it will be worth millions.

At just 5.6kg, the chair, which is 90% carbon fibre composite, weighs a fraction of regular steel or aluminium models that can be upwards of 20kg.

One tetraplegic broke down in tears after testing the chair because of the independence it would give him. He had been disabled for 23 years.

Mark, 37, met Marcus, a former engineer with the BMW Williams F1 team, by chance. Marcus had worked alongside team boss Sir Frank Williams, who has used a wheelchair after being paralysed in a car crash in 1986. It was watching Frank in his bulky chair that inspired Marcus to build the world’s lightest model out of carbon fibre composite.

He contacted wheelchair dealerships, looking for carbon-fibre wheels, and Mark, owner of MB Discount Wheel Chairs and Scooters, Southport, was the only one to dispatch a set.

They designed The Future Chair, which sells for £2,595. It took 1,000 drawings and £70,000 of seed capital to develop.

Former brick layer Mark added: “I couldn’t ask for any-thing more since being in my wheelchair. It’s a piece of art and engineering excellence that you couldn’t possibly beat.”

In August, Mark will put the seal on a brilliantly successful year by marrying his long-term girlfriend.

benschofield@dailypost.co.uk