Turning disadvantage to advantage is the name of the game for mobility expert Peter Prentice, who has set up in business to help disabled people get out and about more easily. He is in a unique position to do so, being a spina bifida sufferer since birth, and wheelchair-bound.

Now, with more than ten years' experience as an NHS rehabilitation engineer under his belt, he has set up Cotswold Mobility, near Chipping Norton.

He said: "My aim is to ensure all customers receive the best advice and products to enable them to maintain, or recover aspects of independence that would otherwise be compromised or lost."

The company's premises, surprisingly, is to be found in an old cowshed at a farm in Bledington, near Chipping Norton - a place many wheelchair users would regard as no-go, thanks to the rough terrain.

But that is the point - Mr Prentice, 40, grew up on the farm, where his parents live, and has long been searching for a conveyance that would allow him to move about the place better.

Now he has found the TracAbout, an American-made wheelchair with tracks like a miniature tank which allows him to play his part on the farm. He uses it himself and has recently won sole distribution rights for its sale in Europe.

Extolling the new horizons the machine has opened up for him, he described a recent visit with his family to a beach in Dorset. He had paddled - if that is the right word for rolling along in a wheelchair - through the surf - something that until then would have been impossible for him to do.

He said: "I really want to supply products that fit the clients; not the other way round."

He and his wife Julie, who carries out some of the administration side of the business, live in a house in Bledington near the farm.

They have two children, one of whom has now left home. Both juggle family and work life, with him still working four days a week for the NHS (he drives to the Nuffield hospital in Oxford), while she has a job in a wine merchant in Moreton-in-Marsh.

As if all that were not enough, they now run a business with a turnover approaching £50,000 a year, and have just taken on a three-day-a-week sales manager, Mark Maxwell. He too has long experience in the mobility business and believes passionately in what he is doing.

He said that unfortunately, there are some suppliers of equipment for disabled people who do not really supply enough detailed advice and consultation to ensure the client always gets the right product for their money.

Mr Maxwell sees it as an essential part of his job to make sure no Cotswold Mobility customer is ever left in that position, but candidly admits that competing on price, while offering such top-class service and advice, can be hard.

As for Mr Prentice, with his love of engineering, he has helped design the company's other product for which it has sole distribution rights, the Wilgo wheelchair. It is made in Northamptonshire by friend Andy Brown, who simply had the conviction that he could design a better chair.

The Wilgo's main advantage over conventional chairs is that it allows the occupant to propel it with levers in an energy efficient way, which works particularly well for anyone with weakness in their arms or shoulders.

The trouble with many wheelchairs, as both Mr Maxwell and Mr Prentice freely acknowledge, is that they are expensive.

The TracAbout costs £8,000 and the Wilgo £2,000 - perhaps not expensive for what you get, but still a lot of money to find for many people.

Mr Maxwell said the company will help clients who have identified the right piece of kit for their particular needs - which depends often on whether they expect their condition to improve or degenerate - to find their way through the maze of grants that may, or may not, be available.

He said: "Amazingly, the availability of financial help still varies considerably depending on where you live. Its still a postcode lottery to some extent."

Many customers must continually plan ahead. Mr Prentice, for instance, used to walk about to some extent until the age of 13, then doctors advised that he was putting too much strain on his spine.

He became interested in keeping up with all developments in the field of equipment for people like him, such as chairs that can raise you up to a semi-standing position.

He said: "I suppose I am one of those lucky people who has found what he wants to do. I really want to help others by passing on my knowledge."

Mr Maxwell added: "It is really not just about sales. I think you really do have to believe in what you are doing."

Contact: www.cotswoldmobility.co.uk