Having faced the challenges of social stigmatisation and below-par mobility aids, Alex Papanikolaou has made his dream powerchair a commercial reality


IT WAS while backpacking around the world at the age of 19 that Alex Papanikolaou decided to create something he knew would improve his life – and the lives of many others – immeasurably. The seed was sown much earlier, however.

“I can still remember what it felt like at school, when every two weeks something would go wrong with my powerchair,” he says. “I quickly became my local NHS wheelchair technician’s most visited user.”

The Freedom One Life Series 5 powerchair combines state-of-the-art design with lived experience and it is now on the market after years of research and real-life testing.

It offers users a battery that lasts three times longer than standard wheelchair batteries, delivering a 40km range in real-world conditions, a variety of seat sizes, a 50-degree tilt and 300mm of lift, and 20,000km of road testing across continents by Alex himself.

“From the moment the chair was safe and usable, I was using it every day,” he says. “It has been frustrating at times, especially because some investors don’t understand exactly what goes into making a powerchair, or the disability market in general, and there have been times when things were tight – but I did not give up.

“It feels good to now be moving out of the research and development phase into the sales and marketing phase – finally getting the message out that there is a chair that can help people live they life they choose and no-one should have to compromise because of their chair.”

When Alex was born in Athens in Greece, his umbilical cord was trapped around his neck and he was struggling to breathe. Doctors successfully managed to cut the cord, but those few moments being starved of oxygen caused lasting damage to Alex’s health.

It was months later before his parents realised something was wrong. Their son could not sit up. They took him to doctors who eventually told them Alex had been born with cerebral palsy.

During his early childhood, despite limited mobility, Alex and his parents were determined he should live as normal a life as possible. He took the bus to school, made friends and joined in.

His first real taste of discrimination came, he says, when he was told to draw in a corner, while his classmates took lessons.

He received his first powered wheelchair at the age of 12, and immediately understood “how it feels when a powerchair fails to live up to your needs and expectations”.

Ignoring those who told him he should stay at home, that his condition meant he would not see the world in the way he wanted to, Alex overcame the limitations of his first powerchair and the ones that followed, to travel the world.

“I have always been very independently minded,” he says, adding with a laugh: “And stubborn as a mule.”

Alex got a job in PC World and, by the time he was aged 18, had saved enough cash to travel to New York where the hostel he had booked said they could not take him because of his chair – he was a “fire risk”.

Unperturbed, Alex persuaded them to put him up and enjoyed the first of many trips, often in charge of industry-standard powerchairs that were not fit for purpose.

As he continued his travels his powerchairs broke down, and bits fell off. The batteries packed in on countless occasions, leaving him stranded and alone and relying on the kindness of strangers. Repairs took weeks, sometimes months. Parts had to be sent abroad for. If he complained about customer service, he was told to “take it or leave it.”

The frustration he felt as a young man battling with inferior powerchairs has never left him, he admits.

“I wanted to create something I knew would create a step change in the powerchair market,” he says. “It took a lot of research and trial and error. Some people thought it was brilliant, some people thought I was mad for even trying.”

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After a series of prototypes, the Freedom One Life Series 5 powerchair was born – robust, comfortable and, crucially, road-tested by Alex in his home city of Edinburgh, across Scotland, Patagonia, China, New Zealand, South Africa, America and throughout Europe.

His own experiences allowed him to make often tiny, sometimes major and occasionally groundbreaking improvements to the design, technology and functionality. Certified as a medical device and crash tested, the Series 5 is compact and agile enough to be used indoors, and fit in small spaces in trains and buses.

It also has a dedicated flight mode for air travel. This is a powerchair developed by someone who understands precisely the challenges faced by powerchair users, whether they are popping down to their local shops or travelling halfway around the world.

Alex is the first to admit it has been a joint effort, latterly, as he assembled a “crack team” of designers, mechanical and electrical engineers and specialists to help him bring his ideas to production.

“Up until 2018, it was mainly me and some business advisers and mentors but now I have a fantastic team around me,” he says. “It was a steep learning curve for me, learning everything from complex electrical engineering to how to run the payroll. A breakthrough was when Sir David Murray came on board as an investor.”

The family investment vehicle of former Rangers Football Club owner Sir David put up a share of the cash needed for Alex to bring the lightweight power wheelchair to market.

A funding round at the end of 2017 raised £280,000, also attracting investments from Wood Group chairman Ian Marchant as well as Stuart Macdonald, the managing director of cyber security business Seric Systems. Innovate UK, the UK government’s innovation agency, contributed more than £250k of grant funding.

At the time, Mr Murray’s son David Murray, who is managing director of Murray Capital, said the Freedom One wheelchair was likely to bring “significant improvements to quality of life” for its users.

At the end of 2021 and as pressures from the pandemic eased, Freedom One Life raised £400,000 in a follow-up round including £252,000 raised on Crowdcube. This round allowed them to finalise the medical device certification and move into production.

Customers can now book a test drive through the company’s website. The Series 5 costs £22,500.

“It has taken years to get to this point, but finally seeing the finished product for the first time is really exciting,” says Alex.

“It has been hard work, but now it’s actually happening and our customers are seeing the benefits we spent so many years working on. It feels great.” 
 

freedomonelife.com