My Perfect Wheelchair

I wouldn't want to go down there now.

Andrew Slorance was a teenager when an accident left him paralysed.

From the age of about 17,

I knew the wheelchair just wasn't as good as it could be.

It was limiting.

Nearly 30 years later,

he's convinced he can create the perfect wheelchair.

I wanted to do something really different,

something that was going to make a difference to other people,

and a difference to me in my own life.

I want him to believe in himself

and to have a stage in his life

that he can look back and say, "That was just bloody fantastic."

This might actually work. This might actually really work.

But it's going to be tough getting the chairs manufactured...

Andrew, this project has been so delayed, because of you.

Because of me? Really?

Oh, yeah. Oh, my!

..finding investors...

Just get them out there on the market

at the price you think you can ultimately sell them for.

..and getting the chair to market.

I lie in bed at night just turning over what we do next,

how we pay the next thing.

I've put the children's lives on hold, so I'm...

..living pretty dangerously, in my own kind of way.

This programme contains some strong language

What do you think when you see them do that?

Do you really think, "God, that looks so enjoyable"?

-You mean jumping in?

-Yeah.

No.

Even if I wanted to jump in there and go to the other side,

the wheelchair would still be here. Got to get back to it again.

-Yes.

-I always think of the practical side.

All the worries...

It's just always there, you just want to get rid of it. It'd be quite nice.

The biggest defining fact of me is, obviously, I use a chair.

-Do you remember what it used to feel like?

-Yeah.

I'm not too keen on the term, "Disabled",

because it just says disabled.

It says, you know,

like the bomb squad disable a bomb, they render it useless.

I don't consider myself disabled, but I have to use the term.

Andrew Slorance was 14 when he fell out of a tree

and broke his back.

I remember falling through the branches, breaking them as I fell.

I must have been paralysed instantly.

Of course, at the beginning, I couldn't believe it.

Thought it was all still a dream.

But of course...

..it's all true.

ANDREW ON TV: 'The doctor said I broke my back, cos I jackknifed

'when I hit the ground.'

Whilst in hospital, he was filmed for a BBC documentary.

It's the first time wife Mary and stepson Owen have seen the film.

TEENAGE ANDREW ON TV: 'And I asked the nurse,

'"Are my legs going to be OK?"'

'And the nurse, at the beginning, pretended she didn't hear me.

'And all the nurses did this.'

-Goodness.

-Six months on.

-And then you're so matter-of-fact about it.

-Yeah.

'I think people that aren't used to being around people'

in a wheelchair will find it, like, hard not to look at the chair

or the person's legs or, like, ask questions

or have thoughts in their mind about disabled people.

Right, now. Come on.

TEENAGE ANDREW: 'I don't like being pushed.

'I don't like people seeing me being pushed around

'like I was a pram.'

It was very much a feeling at that age that it happened to me

at a young age when I could adapt.

That was the word that was used a lot. "You can adapt to this, Andrew."

Makes you a good thinker. Suffering makes you a good thinker.

You have a lot of time to digest and...

consider.

I think, in that way, being paralysed has helped me quite a lot.

Helped me to see the world in a different perspective.

Wheelchairs are very limiting.

If I take the wheels off, like I would if I was getting in and out of the car....

There's lots of things that are wrong with the chair.

The first thing is, they all look the same.

'It's...'

It's just a chair, that's all it is.

It's actually quite heavy.

I mean, that's about, on its own, probably about 7kg.

This is a typical wheelchair wheel,

basically just a bike wheel that's had the hub changed

and had this bit held on. Added on.

But it's really difficult to grip, so I have to push the chair

all the time with my hand on the wheel, like this,

which means you're just running your hands on tyres.

The other thing about these aluminium rims

is if I just rub my finger on there for a minute...

it comes off on your fingers. Anything it knocks into,

it will leave this black residue.

And that's that, really.

After 27 years of putting up with this,

Andrew has designed his own wheelchair,

a revolutionary lightweight model he's called Carbon Black.

So here's a picture of the design as it stands right now.

This isn't really going to change now till we've made the prototype.

So here you can see the main difference is this single stem

that runs just down the middle.

That goes behind the user's legs, rather than what you'd normally have

is the two straps going down either side.

Why not have a wheelchair that, you know...

is super, super-sexy looking.

This shot shows how the backrest's got these big cut-outs in it,

which make it very light.

What's the weight, do you think, of your wheelchair?

I'm aiming for about six kilos for the chair.

The chair I'm using today is about ten.

It's very hard to know, really, how it's going to be like.

You know, we can see... We can see that it looks nice in the CAD,

in the computer, but the day they actually bring the chair out and say,

"There it is, that's it, this is what it's all been about,

"this has been three years of work...",

that's going to be a really big moment.

I don't know.

Andrew and Mary are facing a huge challenge,

which they're recording on video diary.

Three years ago, Andrew gave up his job as a film editor

to concentrate on Carbon Black.

Without any experience in product design,

they'll have to get the chair manufactured, tested and marketed.

It's gone off again.

Today, Andrew is heading to Milton Keynes

to pick up the first working model, or prototype, of Carbon Black

'I lie in my bed at night,

'I look at the wheelchair sitting next to my bed.

'And I can't help myself

'but to replace the chair sitting next to my bed with Carbon Black,

'and try to imagine, "What's this really going to look like?"

'"Is it going to work?"

'"Why has no-one else done a chair like this?"'

FLEETWOOD MAC ON CAR STEREO

You don't know that you've had a good time

till you've listened to Fleetwood Mac, I tell you.

And it sets you up for a good journey, doesn't it, love?

It does. It's our anthem.

MUSIC: "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac

'I'm nervous, I think, for Andy.'

I just want it to go well. I want it to go well.

I really want it to happen for him. And...

Cos there's nobody that's struggled more...

in my lifetime that I've known, except for Andy.

You know, his life has been a constant struggle.

I see it every day. And this time,

I want him to believe in himself.

You know, I may be the support, but, "No, YOU did this."

And that's going to be a good day for me. It really is.

# You can go your own way... #

Scottish Enterprise are funding this first prototype.

Andy always says to me...

I don't remember this, but he seems to have it etched in his mind.

Years, when he first started the idea of Carbon Black,

I apparently, quote, said that, "It's never going to work",

and he should just get a normal job.

But no, I think you see Andy putting so much work into it,

so much effort...

I mean, you kind of have to believe it's going to work, you have to put that belief into it.

Inspired by one of the fastest vehicles on four wheels,

Andrew's making his wheelchair from Formula 1 material - carbon fibre.

So he's come to Prodrive,

the company behind Aston Martin's racing team.

That's light, isn't it? That's better.

And the button's absolutely flush. That's exactly how we wanted it.

It's incredibly rigid.

Oh, I'm really chuffed with that. That looks great.

It's going to look pretty funky, isn't it?

-It's going to be awesome.

-It's going to look pretty damn good.

This first prototype is being made using a high-tech process

which is hugely labour-intensive.

28 parts have to be moulded separately and then glued together.

It's really happening and it's dawning on me.

This might actually work. This might actually really work,

and I was absolutely buzzing about it.

I'm seeing it completely come together as...

as Carbon Black.

It looks completely revolutionary, the wheels look fantastic,

everything's fitting together properly.

It's all just clicking together, so I'm really optimistic.

Two days later, and the chair is nearly finished.

But there is a problem with the backrest.

It's not latching.

Or that needs to be higher up.

The engineers have forgotten to leave a gap for the seat cushion.

They improvise a solution, made from wood and electrical tape.

British engineering at its best(!)

I think it's the old Heath Robinson school of engineering, this one, isn't it?

To compete with other chairs on the market,

Andrew wants a six kilogram wheelchair.

Some things are over-engineered...

This one is over two-and-a-half kilograms heavier.

Three years since the project began,

he's about to see Carbon Black for the first time.

HE EXHALES

God, it's so weird to see it for real.

Done a really good job. Thank you.

Just takes a little bit of time to get my head round it.

It looks so different to the other chair, doesn't it?

It does look really good.

Next to this one, it's like a new generation, isn't it?

That's what I... That's what I feel like.

It's weird, it feels like it's moving, but maybe it's just flexing.

Flexing, probably. Does it feel fairly-balanced?

It does actually, yeah.

That feels all right.

Hey, I'm using it.

I'm using it.

What's the hold-up? What is he doing?

Andy hasn't told me what he thinks about it, cos he doesn't, you know,

he wants my reaction to be a surprise.

Mary.

-Yes, are you ready?

-Yeah.

-OK.

Oh, my God!

Stay still.

God, it's... God, I can't believe it's real.

-Fantastic.

-Do you think so?

-Oh, my God, can I have a look at the footrest?

-Yeah.

-I'll move your feet.

-Yeah, go on.

Oh, my God.

Gosh, it's really real.

Oh, my God.

I can't believe it's here.

Aw! SHE LAUGHS

-Do you want to see it without me in it?

-Yeah.

A few minutes away from where Andrew now lives is his old family home.

DOG BARKS Dogs do react oddly to wheelchairs.

There's the house where I grew up, in this house here.

Yeah, I spent a lot of time here getting used to being in a wheelchair.

I think there's a picture of me on my first day back at school,

back at Nairn Academy, after I'd been paralysed.

I'll never forget it, ever.

I felt guilt, anger...

wishing it had been me.

That somehow we had destroyed his life,

he would never have teenage years.

My bedroom was round the side of the house, on the other side.

But after my accident, my bedroom was moved to that bay window,

just above that roof there, that was my bedroom, cos it was bigger,

and you could get a wheelchair round it, with a through-floor lift

that you wound by hand. It took you up on a kind of platform.

This is the only way of taking it up to my bedroom.

Pull this down, and I just wind this handle, and I can go up.

Soon, Andrew began to form ideas of a perfect wheelchair.

I wouldn't call it an obsession,

but he's had this idea in his head since his accident, really.

He began talking about the chairs being big and heavy

and ugly and industrial, and we just all thought it was a pipe dream.

October, 2010,

and the first prototype needs to be put through its paces.

It's way lighter than getting the other one out.

It's a chance to test out a design feature unique to Carbon Black.

LEDs.

-What does it look like?

-It's so dark I can't actually see you.

But they don't look stupid, doesn't look like a mobile Christmas tree?

No, no, it's not like that at all. If you had more of them...

-Strobing.

-Yeah!

They're quite bright from here.

I think it's still promising. We can work on it.

And I do. I think it's an excellent idea.

Carbon Black. Showing you the way ahead!

Carbon Black. Glow as you go!

Glow as you go, that's good!

THEY LAUGH

-That was good, wasn't it?

-That was good.

-It's got to be said.

And I'm looking, I don't know whether it's the tyres

or it's actually the carbon wheels,

but they're reverberating. Not too bad.

Over the next few weeks, they test the wheelchair

in everyday situations.

It's actually not too bad. It's all right.

It's still quite slow. But this is quite a good test,

because I'm really pushing on the wheels quite hard.

-Mm-hm.

-There's a lot of resistance against them.

-I think this is going quite well.

-Are you happy?

-Yeah.

-I used to come down here as a kid.

-Did you?

-Come down here on my bike.

If I can't do that, there's something seriously wrong.

This is where I do get a bit scared, not because of going up a curb,

just cos I hope the wheels can take it.

'This is the start of...'

These are really small curbs.

'..you know, maybe the beginning of the business of it.

'I'm positive. I'm feeling very positive.'

It's a feeling of elation, but for me, there's, you know,

there's a small little element of being scared,

being scared of, "What does that mean for us?

"What does that mean for us as a family?"

-OK, OK.

-OK.

-You've got a front caster problem.

-Yeah.

-OK.

I don't want to do much to it, because we're going to have to get you back, aren't we?

-Yeah. Let's get back.

-It's a minor hiccup.

The front caster has come loose.

OK. Do you want to take this one back?

But there is a far greater issue.

With such high-end manufacturing costs,

Carbon Black will have to sell for £20,000.

More than eight times the price of the average wheelchair.

I think if Carbon Black was priced at about kind of £4,000 or £5,000,

I think we would be overwhelmed with people interested.

But what I don't know is,

are there 200 people that'll pay £20,000 for a wheelchair?

The answer really has to be yes, but...

..it's a gamble.

And what would be the life span of the chair, then?

I would replace my chair every two to three years.

And I wouldn't expect someone to get more from Carbon Black.

Too many cooks in the kitchen!

Andrew, his three stepchildren and Mary are getting ready for Christmas.

This is all mine. That's the only beer there is!

The first prototype has thrown up issues with the front forks,

the casters, and the backrest, which broke off completely,

so he needs to make a second.

But on top of the grants,

he's already spent £50,000 of his own money.

He can no longer afford to work with Prodrive.

It's nearly three months to the day since we picked up the chair,

and the project's been absolutely static for all that time.

-That'll do, come round.

-Christmas is ruined!

GIRL: It's overdressed! >

Why is that 100 shades of wrong?

-GIRL: Cos it's too gold.

-Cos you put red and gold together?

It's two together, you can't do that, that's wrong.

The couple have just been awarded a further grant by Highlands And Islands Enterprise

to make a second prototype.

But they'll have to find an extra £20,000.

Andrew has no option but to remortgage the family home.

I've now put in every penny I can find.

So this is it, this is the last phase of the development,

and what comes out at the end of this phase has got to be the end product,

and it's got to be on the market very soon.

-OK...

-THEY CHEER

That's nice.

Andrew has found a new local manufacturer

who has worked with some top names in Formula 1.

James Urquhart says he can manufacture Carbon Black

for a quarter of the price.

How light is that?

-It's pretty light, isn't it?

-It's going to be lighter when you're done with it.

This means Andrew could get the retail price down to £10,000.

This is the moulds here.

It's just basically all been bunged into a box, hasn't it?

It's just been thrown in, yeah.

-So that's the footrest, that's the top of the footrest?

-Yeah.

To help keep the costs down,

Andrew has instructed James to use these original moulds, or tooling,

created by the first company.

In fact, there's more tooling than I thought there was.

There is quite a bit of tooling here.

Expensive stuff.

There's about forty grand's worth of tooling in there.

But that's to Formula 1 prices.

Yet the chair built using these is flawed.

-It does looks on a bit of an angle.

-It does.

-OK, but that's an issue.

-Yeah, that is one to check.

With money tight,

he's set James a deadline of 12 weeks to make the second prototype.

-How it's looking, James?

-Yeah, it's all right, yeah.

Does it all makes sense?

Yeah, just going to have to have a proper look through it all

-and see how it all goes together, really.

-Have a seat.

The Enterprise Agency has also provided a business mentor.

It's so light. That's the thing. It's absolutely so light.

This is business start-up.

This is business start-up at its absolute sharp end,

and in the middle of a recession as well.

Where I would be nervous for Andy

is that he has got a very, very expensive product.

That means that he has got to go and find the customers

who are going to spend that amount of money, across the world.

This place is dedicated to the chair, and that's really cool.

I feel like I'm, you know, I'm now working with someone

that's going to be really focused on doing the best for the product.

-Yeah, sure.

-Rather than trying to make the quickest buck.

Carbon Black is finally on track for a launch in spring, 2011.

Early February, and progress is proving painfully slow.

Things are very up and down, you know.

I'm confused, Andy's confused.

Since Christmas, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

Andy is spending copious amounts of time at the unit,

trying to almost, you know, walk him through this.

And that's creating an awful lot of pressure for the pair of us.

This chair was supposed to be done for the end of March,

beginning of April.

Have we got tape, James, or even your measuring...?

Despite this, Andrew continues developing ideas

for the second prototype.

-You're going to want it...

-200, we said, wasn't it? Yeah.

If there was a quick-release mechanism, you could almost...

And then it would just click in there.

'He's blaming me for the delays.

'Although we're trying to push on and do the best that we could,'

and there was a lot of changes within the stages that...

Well, there were indecisive changes

in terms of things were getting changed on the backrest etc

that slowed the project right down.

-Pivoted here...

-Yeah.

..on a screw.

When things keep changing, it's hard to keep up

when the goalposts keep getting moved.

Plans to start selling the chair in seven weeks have to be put on hold.

-We'll keep it fairly brief, cos it's too frickin' cold.

-Yeah.

We're nearly at February 14,

and we're still not quite signed off stage one.

-It's been quite a...

-It's been a struggle up to here.

-Yeah.

I think both of us have perhaps not been as proactive as we could have been.

And obviously, I'm having a bit more input...

But timetables aren't the only issue.

But I mean, if we're waiting on carbon coming,

that's obviously a total basic fundamental we're going to have to have.

It is. I'll make sure I'm ordering it at least six weeks in advance.

Is that the lead-time, six weeks?

I mean, I have seen it take up to six weeks before.

I mean, that would kill us.

We might need to think of a contingency plan.

The decision to delay selling begins to affect everyone.

SHE LAUGHS

Oh, my God. Are you kidding?!

'I worry about the stress levels round the family.'

I lie in bed at night just turning over what we do next,

how we pay the next thing.

How long have I got before it becomes just too tough?

Well, I thought I'd give those guys an advantage

and get the best player to see if he can be just as good from a wheelchair.

So that's what I'm doing.

You're very limited for swing back.

-HE GROANS

-Right, OK.

HE LAUGHS

CHEERING AND GROANING

Andy's put years into Carbon Black,

and all of his focus is into it, so he hasn't had a job.

And I mean, there's only so long you can go without working

until, you know, money starts to run out and things start to get tight.

Family life's kind of taken a back seat to the chair, if you like.

I think Sophie, especially,

she's in her last year of secondary school now, it's a big year,

she's got exams, she's hoping to go to university after,

and I kind of think that it's tough on her,

because she's not getting help with her, well, not getting as much help

with her studies from the parents as maybe she should be.

They can't focus on her and the chair at the same time,

and unfortunately, the chair's winning out,

so she's kind of being left on her own a little bit, you know.

March 1st.

There has been little progress made over the last three months.

I'm mad.

I'm really, really upset about it.

I expected the new company to be on the ball big-time.

Hopes that James would manufacture a far cheaper Carbon Black

haven't been realised.

Had it. Absolutely had it.

Had it with this wheelchair, I've had it with the whole project.

Just sick to the back teeth of it.

I was OK till this afternoon, and Mary got very upset this afternoon.

And that's kind of pushed me over the edge a little bit.

Cos I've just been bottling it and bottling all the stress,

and she just cracked, totally cracked this afternoon.

She just sat down on the sofa and just broke down.

Said, "I can't do this anymore."

Some of them are still with the pattern cutter,

-so we'll have to get them sent back up.

-I was kind of expecting that last week.

Yeah, but he hasn't sent them up...

You take everything out the box, and we'll put it back in the box.

OK, two sets of LEDs.

-There's three sets in there.

-There's three sets.

Quick releases, two.

-Power strips.

-Have the other switch come?

Well, it's not arrived, but there's no need for it

because you signed that off already, so it's what we agreed on.

It's not what we agreed on at all, is it?

I mean, last time I saw you, there were...

you said they're sending the other one because they've only got...

Well, I'm only telling you what they're telling me.

-I'm pushing them to send stuff to me.

-Bullshit.

Andrew, you're talking... Andrew, this project has been so delayed

-because of you.

-Because of me? Really?

Andrew and James have decided to part ways.

But this is not the first company that Andrew has dealt with,

or the second.

In fact, it's the fourth.

I don't think Andrew really appreciates actually how much

we've put into this, you know, and how much extra effort

behind the scenes that goes on.

And I just feel that he doesn't see half of it,

so he probably thinks there's not very much progress,

when we're really actually doing quite a lot here

to try and make this work for him, you know.

I didn't know developing a new product was going to be

as time-consuming, as expensive and as hard as this has been.

You're totally reliant on the engineers and the designers and...

..all the other people that are involved with this to do their bit.

But it's not their project. They're just doing their job.

With no manufacturer on board,

Andrew decides to push ahead with the marketing.

Today, he's having publicity photos taken

by one of the UK's leading brand photographers, Richard Foster.

Intriguing beast.

Intriguing beast, that's a good name for it!

It's actually a much more elegant piece of design

than I was expecting.

You can't give something first time out ten-out-of-ten, but I'd definitely give it a nine.

Would you mind...? Yeah, keep going round. That's so much better.

SHUTTER CLICKS

I don't know the market he's selling to.

I know sort of what's happened to me,

but I don't know how many other people are in a wheelchair

with the money to spend

on that object of, you know, desirability.

There's something very beautiful if you come down here

and look at that. Really, you know, it's quite exceptional.

You haven't held back. You've designed everything, even redesigned the wheel.

I think it's designed for people with maybe a little more movement

than myself. I think I'd fall out the back quite quick.

So before your accident, would you have been running around doing all this yourself?

Yeah, much better. I actually concentrate on the photographs now,

-not running up and down.

-It works quite well, doesn't it?

Yeah. Far harder work...

Richard Foster is the only other wheelchair user

ever to have seen Carbon Black.

Andrew has based the design on his own needs.

Perhaps arrogantly, I feel I know what needs to be done.

I am the market study.

I've had 28 years using a chair, and my take on it is,

if I have the problems I have with existing chairs, then so do others.

There we go.

I mean, words can't say enough, can they?

Night and day. Chalk and cheese.

It now doesn't matter whether I go to a user group

and they tell me they don't like it, because I'll carry on regardless.

-How are you doing, sir?

-Hi, Gary.

-How's tricks?

-How are you?

Nearly four years on, and Carbon Black is still not on sale.

Andrew's meeting his business mentor Gary for some advice.

Good bacon rolls, that's the main thing you get in here.

Get some products, get out there and show it to folk.

-And even if it turns out to be a market research...

-Mm-hm.

..you know, sort of day out or two days out,

where everybody comes on and says, "Well, yeah, I like, I'd buy it,

"but I'd only buy it if..." And if you get 99 out of 100 people

coming up and saying, "It needs this,"

then at least you know that...

See, I know there are things that it does need.

I know that this backrest is too small for some people to use.

That's what you think.

What you need to do is go and find out what everybody else thinks as well.

In case you have fundamentally misread the market.

I think you're right. I think I've got quite bogged down

in trying to reduce the weight,

and keep the weight down and keep it down.

The danger is you'll keep on trying to make it perfect in your own mind.

You don't need the perfect wheelchair, just one 200 people a year will buy.

That's it. It's come to the crunch.

HE LAUGHS It's too scary!

I know it's scary, but that's it, now you've got to go

and find out if everybody else likes your baby as well.

That's it.

Urged by Gary, Andrew decides to launch Carbon Black

at a major disability road show in just eight weeks.

I do think it's easy for Gary to say, "Oh, just be there.

"If you commit to being there, it'll all be good.

"You'll find out."

And he's right, but I've got to find the money to do it.

After the fallout with James,

Andrew started working with a new company in Leicestershire.

It's a really exciting day that hopefully this is it.

This is the second and final chair to be made

before I can actually get Carbon Black onto the market.

-Andrew.

-Good to see you again.

-You too, are you well?

-Yeah, not so bad.

-Safe journey down, good journey?

Yeah, it was all right. Getting used to it again.

-Yeah, well, this is it.

-535 miles this time.

Well worth it, I think.

There's a lot of progress since you were down here last time.

Andrew wants to sell Carbon Black for £10,000.

He's instructed Jamie Smith to make a second prototype

from the original moulds made over a year ago.

-There we are, eh? Fantastic.

-Yeah.

I think the level of finish can, well, without a shadow of a doubt, be improved.

-Time frame now is just trying to get it...

-Looks pretty good, though.

..trying to get it done, basically.

He's still hoping for a 6kg wheelchair.

How light is that?

The first prototype weighed 8.66 kilograms.

Oh, no.

Quirky.

I'm surprised at that.

It's actually not far off where we were before.

At 8.77 kilograms, this prototype is heavier.

-Still sticking to your 6kg chair?

-Yep.

-Yeah? In six weeks?

-Yep.

-OK.

-If you can afford it, anyway.

-Oh, that's the clause, isn't it?

Yeah!

Back in Nairn, he's discovered another problem.

The bonding has cracked along the line there,

which is exactly the same thing that happened to the first chair

made by Prodrive.

And although that's taking quite a lot of strength for me

just to actually move that, I don't want to shear it off.

I'm tempted to use the chair and see if it breaks,

cos I need to be able to do that...

I wondered whether it was like a design flaw, almost.

Erm...

I hope not. Hope it's not a design flaw, cos these parts are all tooled

and to change them's going to be expensive.

I thought that, you know, we'd just make the first chair

and if I spent so much time designing it, it would all be hunky-dory

and everything would be great. "Let's sell this thing."

But actually, another...

This second prototype's still got issues.

A lot of the problems have been resolved, but...

there's going to have to be third one.

A third one before I can confidently say, "Now we're there."

Andrew's back in London, looking for further investment.

He's heard about a less labour-intensive manufacturing process

that would make an even cheaper Carbon Black.

But he'd need to buy new moulds.

-Sorry, do you work in here?

-Yes.

-How do I get in here?

I'll put the front wheels on and you can help up the step, OK?

He's meeting top entrepreneur Deborah "Dragons' Den" Meaden.

And one more... OK.

-Oh, yeah. Oh, my goodness.

-Yes.

And I won't ask you to lift this one, but it's quite a lot heavier than that one.

I might have to take my shoes off, because these high heels were not meant for lifting.

Well, A - it's awkward to lift, because...

-Because the seat just moves, it's just fabric.

-Yeah.

-There is a handle there.

-Oh, is there? Oh, gosh,

that's very different.

And that couple of kilograms does actually make quite a lot of difference.

It just feels like using a bus now.

And that is, you know, that, to be absolutely fair,

eight kilograms is pretty, you know...

There are a lot of chairs around that weight.

There are some that are less than that.

Cos your target weight was six kilograms, wasn't it?

The target is six.

-I don't know that we're going to achieve that without new tooling.

-OK.

The carbon fibre company says we can do it,

but we need to make it in once piece. But we need a good amount of money

to make the tooling.

-So, if you did have the new tooling...

-Mm-hm.

..you could sell this for...?

I reckon we could sell it for about six.

Just get them out there on the market for the price

-you think you can ultimately sell them for...

-Yeah.

..and see how quickly they sell.

And there's nothing like saying, "Do you know, three months, I've sold ten of them.

"I've sold 100 of them. I've sold, two, three..."

Whatever it is. That just helps me make my decision

to say, "This isn't risky, there's a market."

So right now, you would think this is risky?

That's a difficult thing for me to hear right now.

I am at a very scary time. I'm completely skint.

To have someone in front of you that's got all that money

and is an investor, I would have lapped it up, because I need it.

If there is something that worries me about Andrew,

I think he might be losing his nerve.

The risk with losing confidence is when you're talking to people,

they can feel it.

And confidence is a very attractive thing.

And if he's trying to raise funds, if he's trying to get investors,

if he's trying to convince people to buy his product,

now he needs to be very, very confident about it.

With no investment from Deborah Meaden,

the focus is now on the imminent launch.

What happens on the day if we don't sell one chair?

Or, you know, even if we didn't sell any chairs,

but the interest is really low?

Erm...

You know, what effect is it going to have on me, on Andy,

on our sort of confidence about the chair?

And then, what effect is it going to have on us as a family financially?

It's the evening before the public unveiling of Carbon Black.

Andrew's come to Leicestershire to pick up three wheelchairs

for tomorrow's London launch.

-So is this the... Is this the good one?

-Yeah.

This is the fixed one? This is the good one?

It's solid aluminium.

It should have been carbon, really.

You shouldn't actually see...

The other one of these is silver, is gloss.

Hasn't got any heavier.

Weighing in at 8.3kg,

the hope of a 6kg chair hasn't been realised.

Cos this one hasn't got a break lever.

But that's not the only issue.

I'm trying not to find more problems with things

that I think need to be sorted.

But I'm seeing quite a few things.

That's going to have to change,

and that's going to cause a lot of problems.

This chair's got to look absolutely spot on, and that doesn't.

And it doesn't look like a £10,000 chair right now.

Also, one of the three chairs, a lighter display model,

has been damaged.

HE SIGHS

This is not happening.

Well, I can't put this on a stand, on a turntable, under floodlights,

with a cloth sitting over it because we've cracked it.

Oh, Christ, it's chipped on the corners as well.

This is the night before our show.

Not only have we had a disaster with the other chair that's being done,

the one chair that was absolutely immaculate's

been dropped on the floor and cracked.

And now we're trying to fix it with masking tape

and bits of spray paint.

Or drape a cloth over the crack to hide it.

(What? What the fuck?)

It's been the worst day of the whole project.

HE SIGHS

When Jamie said, "I dropped it, the display chair's broken,

"you can't have it...",

I thought he was joking.

I thought he was going to say, "Ha-ha, just joking."

For this to happen at this hour, on this night,

is just more than disappointing.

It's gut-wrenching, to be honest.

If Andrew does get orders for Carbon Black,

he will have to consider a completely new manufacturing process.

-You want to retool?

-Yeah.

Yeah. I want to retool as well, but we need orders to retool.

This is not, this is not in any state a part

that you can go into production with for any kind of volume.

No, we don't need to achieve any volumes with the tooling we've got.

We just need to achieve orders and maybe a small run

-of production chairs.

-Yeah.

If I come back from the show and I've got ten orders...

If you do get ten orders, then it's imperative that you do retool.

Mm-hm.

-Because it'll make everything work much better, won't it?

-Yes.

1.00am. With the launch just hours away,

Andrew heads to London with the patched-up wheelchairs.

After four years and almost £200,000 investment,

Carbon Black finally goes on sale

at one of Britain's biggest disability road shows.

You know, I hope this exhibition goes well.

I've put a lot of effort into it, posters and fliers

and making sure the chair looks good, getting it sprayed,

getting the photos out.

And I don't even know how much work they put into this thing,

but I'll tell you what I do know - how much stress it's caused.

And you can really tell we're moving forward, just taking steps,

steps to get this thing out in the market, get it sold.

And that means cash, and everybody loves cash.

I shall shift myself out of the way.

This is the first time the public will get to see

and try out Carbon Black.

To woo buyers, Andrew is offering a 22% discount.

But with a price tag of £8,000,

it's still the most expensive wheelchair on sale.

-This looks a grand old chair, I'm telling you.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

Hat off.

I wish I wasn't quadriplegic, I wish I could use one.

But I'd lean and I'd fall out the side, so...

I'm afraid, yeah, you wouldn't get the back support that you've got

-with your chair.

-No, but, oh...

What are they retailing at? Are they expensive?

The retail price, normal price would be £10,000.

SHE SCREAMS

But today's offer is £7,800.

Wow!

Well, you can certainly have a shot. Be a little bit careful with it.

It's quite tippy because the centre of gravity on this particular one

is set quite far forward.

The push rim, well, this is the push rim here.

-So basically, you hold...?

-Yes.

-Oh, right...

-Oh!

-Oh.

Oh, I'm terribly sorry.

If we just pull you up there. There we go.

Move backwards. That's it.

Are you all right?

-Are you all right there?

-I'm fine.

-That's OK, you're...

-Yeah, I'm going to...

-Just lean forward.

Stay with him, love.

It's a unique look,

and it's very tippy, because of...

I'm not used to it,

because the centre of gravity's different from what I'm used to.

A couple of hours in, and there's a problem.

A jammed axle, apparently, on this caster.

I think someone's tried to put it back in again and has jammed it.

So we can't let anybody try it now anyway.

No-one can try it. All they can do is,

I can hop out of this one and they can try mine.

This one's going through some maintenance at the moment.

Pick this one, cos people have been taking it apart. But this is a wheel, basically.

-I'm actually getting my new wheelchair tomorrow.

-Are you?

-So I can't look at this now.

-Oh, no!

-It's costing a fortune. Next time.

-Yeah.

There we go, it actually comes apart. And then the wheels come off.

It's amazing.

Does look a bit like a space buggy,

and it also doesn't look that secure,

so I wouldn't want to buy it just now.

-It's really, really good, isn't it?

-It is, it's fantastic.

Carbon Black gets a lot of interest.

I thought it was very good, very light,

seemed quite comfortable to sit in.

Yeah, a lovely design as well.

Well, we could do a different backrest. This backrest comes off.

But for many, the chair needs adjustments.

-Handles back.

-Handles in back, OK.

Just to give opening guards as well, cos I think that's really important.

Maybe if you can do something for his leg...

We would need to look into that and see what we could do.

At last, Carbon Black is launched.

-Are we happy?

-Ecstatic. You've got to be ecstatic! Look at all that interest.

-Yes.

-Surely you've got to be ecstatic with the amount of press

and the amount of feedback that we've had.

For me, it's proven that wheelchair users like it.

But Andrew and Mary leave with no sales.

Naidex was a whirlwind.

There's been so much preparation into getting it done,

getting ready for it and whoosh, it's done.

And now we're back home, in the cold light of day,

trying to work out how we move forward from there.

I think we need someone else to come in and give us cash and advice.

That's quite a high priority now.

Three months since launching, and Andrew has some great news.

Carbon Black has been nominated for Product Design Of The Year

by London's prestigious Design Museum.

It's been nominated because it has a completely different approach

to what you think a wheelchair should be.

It looks beautiful, and it's very, very neat.

I think it's about time the wheelchair had a bit of glamour,

that it had a bit of wow factor.

It's kind of surreal, really. This is it.

Carbon Black in the London Design Museum, eh?

Yeah, it feels pretty good.

And if this wasn't enough...

You can't stop touching it. It looks so cool. Amazing.

-They sold one!

-Yeah.

..it's also got the interest of another former Dragon.

What I will bring to the table for Andy is commercialisation.

You know, he's got the fantastic invention.

But, you know, as I've learnt,

trying to get a product to market, no matter how fantastic the product, is very difficult.

It takes a lot longer than you expect,

so I would be bringing him capital and access to capital. Money.

How do we do this?

I mean, do you see us going to America very quickly,

to our main market? Do we conquer Britain first, what...

We would want to take this international as quickly as possible,

but the first step is to prove it in the UK

and to get the manufacturing price, cost, down

and get the marketing function up, right up.

So, I think we'll get there fairly quickly.

I guess what you're bringing to the table for me

is you're turning my product into a business.

I've had to come to the realisation

that what I've got is a great product,

but it's not a great business.

-I'm very pleased, really pleased to have you on board.

-Cheers. Yeah, it's very exciting.

But a deal with Richard Farleigh comes at a cost.

He wants 50% of the business.

I've been doing this for four years. I've put a huge amount of my money

and Mary's money, which was our future, on the line,

and I can't make a mistake now.

I don't want to be the founder

that ended up with the tiny little minority share

of the thing he started while other people made all the cash.

After 24 years of dreaming...

But I don't like being pushed. I don't like people seeing me

being pushed around.

..four years of hard graft...

..Andrew has his perfect chair.

God, it's so weird to see it for real.

I can't believe it's here.

But without further investment, production is on hold.

You watch Dragons' Den and, in the space of three minutes,

a Dragon looks at an idea, talks to the entrepreneur

and shakes hands and it's job done.

Well, it's not really like that, not in the real world.

I've got people registering on the website every day,

wanting a demo of Carbon Black.

And right now I've just got to tell them, "Please, be patient.

"We'll get there."

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd