It’s about time we shake up stigma and public perceptions surrounding disability? Take, for example, the words 'walking stick’. What comes to mind? The elderly perhaps, hospitals, or maybe the irritating clicking noise of a grey, metal stick as it hits the floor.
Well, Lyndsay Watterson, disabled entrepreneur and changemaker, is on a mission to shatter these narrow - and often negative - connotations and along with them, shame around disability as a whole.
It all started in 2007, when Lyndsay, from North Yorkshire, contracted a catastrophic post-surgery infection in her knee which wreaked havoc and left Lyndsay’s leg permanently and irreversibly damaged. After living with excruciating, debilitating pain for 3 years, she took the drastic decision to have her leg amputated above the knee.
For Lyndsay, it was the right decision and she has since gone from strength to strength, learning to walk with a prosthetic leg and eventually joining the circus as a performer. She often turned to a walking stick to give her stability when out and about, but felt disappointed when she couldn’t find anything that suited her style or colourful personality.
"They were all pretty ugly. They were all grey or flowery or they just weren't nice."
Taking matters into her own hands, Lindsay used her crafting skills to make her own walking aid. "I actually made myself an acrylic walking stick at home in the oven in the kitchen. I modelled the handle around the wine bottle and I started walking around with it and it was great!"
Immediately, Lindsay started receiving compliments and people approached her in the street to tell her how much they loved her bespoke walking stick. "That’s when I began to think this could be a really good business opportunity."
Eventually, in 2013, Lyndsay launched a website where she offered a range of colourful, unique and fashionable made-to-order sticks and Neo Walk was born - opening up a new world of fun and colour to disabled people all over, miles apart from the clinical and boring aids they were used to.
She recalls: "The first one [I sold] was a silver stick and I remember it went to a lady in the UK. And when the order came through, I thought it was a joke because I couldn't understand how someone would know that these things were out there!"
With no marketing budget, Lyndsay was handling the business alone, making the sticks in her kitchen oven, expecting only to sell a few sticks.
Eventually, as orders began to increase through word of mouth and social media, she knew she needed to expand. So, she began hiring and had a specially designed and modified oven made especially for creating the famous Neo Walk acrylic sticks.
Since then, the business has boomed, now having sold tens of thousands of the bespoke, handmade sticks to people in over 30 countries. With outpourings of love coming from all corners of the earth - she receives hundreds of messages with many attributing their confidence with using a walking stick to the stand-out and stylish nature of the product.
Thinking about the impact her business has had on the disabled community makes Lindsay emotional. "It makes me feel very, very proud that I've been able to [do] this."
"I found that people were giving me positive attention for using a walking stick. And I wanted to give that to other people so that they found this sort of gift of positive reinforcement from people. It's amazing!"
As an amputee herself, Lyndsay knows how it is to live with a disability and receive unwelcome attention from the public. By creating these fun and funky walking aids, she wanted to help other disabled people feel empowered by and proud of their disability.
"I've had the stares, I've had the comments, I know what they feel like and I know the shame and embarrassment and that feeling of wanting the floor just open up and swallow you, you know.
"I've been there and I've also been on the flip side of it where using this walking stick has changed my confidence."
Lyndsay knows that being disabled is an important part of her business and helps her to make the right products for her customers. "I think this is quite important as a disabled entrepreneur, making things for the disabled community. It gives me a really important and unique insight into what that community needs, what they enjoy and what they're looking for."
Neo Walk has even caught the attention of celebrities such as current Dancing with the Stars competitor, Selma Blair. Blair, who lives with Multiple Sclerosis, uses walking aids and has now bought a number of sticks from Lyndsay’s shop.
"Imagine my surprise the morning I got up and looked at the order book and there was an order from Selma. Blair. I absolutely didn't know what to do! She's a lovely lady, very supportive of what we do."
Earlier this year, Lyndsay also headed into the Dragons Den to seek investment for her thriving business. Despite not receiving investment, she got a great reception from the Dragons, with Deborah Meaden saying: "It’s a really, really nice product and it would really take the stigma of a walking stick away," promising to order one for her own sister.
Lyndsay was also shortlisted for the National Diversity Awards, Entrepreneur of Excellence this September and says her business is growing beyond all expectations, now offering 200 different combinations of patterns and styles.
"I just feel a whole host of emotions. Every time I see somebody with one I go over and I introduce myself and say hi and that we are the proud makers of your walking stick."
By creating a product to help disabled people feel fun, fabulous and confident when using a walking stick, Lyndsay is helping fight the stigma of disability and hopes to continue to do this by launching more funky disability aids in the future.
Find out more about Neo Walk here.
