What connects the world’s first wheelchair toddler with a world-famous Cambridge scientist?
Anyone who knows Ken Dickson, the Founder of Axiom-e, will have heard him mention Dragonmobility Ltd, the social enterprise designer and manufacturer of bespoke elevating powered wheelchairs (powerchairs) - and transformer of lives - with whom Axiom-e has had a long association.
Although Covid-19 impacted Dragonmobility significantly, during the pandemic they secured a grant from Innovate UK to partially fund the development of a new range of powerchairs. They now want to commercialise this work by:
· building powerchairs for which they are receiving orders, and
· licensing some of their innovative IP.
Funding is essential to help them move on beyond the recent development phase. They are therefore seeking:
· donations
· sponsorship and
· investment
Several donations have already been received. One investor has offered a large sum, but their support is dependent on us raising matched funding. Could you help facilitate that?
The designs of Dan Everard, Dragonmobility’s Chairman, have enabled more than 2,000 clients to benefit from the freedom and choices that the bespoke intuitive products provide.
The impact of this work has been recognised:
· The Science Museum in London included the first powerchair for children in the Wellcome Galleries which house inventions that have revolutionised health care. The ‘Yellow Peril’ is also featured in a related book The Medicine Cabinet: The Story of Health and Disease Told Through Extraordinary Objects.
· Dragonmobility was short-listed for the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the world’s largest annual humanitarian award presented to nonprofit organisations (social enterprises) judged to have made extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering.
· Dan Everard has twice been nominated for the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering for his work on powerchairs.
To continue transforming the lives of disabled people, Dragonmobility needs your help! To find out more, please contact Ken.
And the answer to that initial question? It's in a recent article from the Cambridge Independent.
Image: Kristine Wook, Unsplash
