Paralysed from the shoulders down following a diving accident at the age of 21, David Constantine devoted his life to improving mobility solutions for disabled people in developing countries

I’d come out of a hunger strike, lost all my bulk and discovered what it means to have no function in my hands whatsoever.

“This is probably the biggest impact on my life as it means I can’t be physically independent. I can’t drive, dress myself or sit up without help. My break is between my fourth and fifth vertebrae, which means I don’t have my triceps – that has more of an impact than not being able to walk.”

On the day Prince William was born in 1982 David finally arrived back in the UK. He says it was the most depressing day of his life. “I remember seeing the faces of people who knew me well and the looks on their faces showing me what I had done.”

But gradually he began to put his life back together after meeting an inspirational social worker. “He said I had three choices. You can go home to your parents, to a residential home or you can live independently. I knew immediately that I wanted to do something useful.”

After taking a degree in computing David won a coveted job with IBM but it was only when he met the computer firm’s industrial designers that he realised just what it was he was supposed to be doing with his life. “I said, ‘So you’re the guys that put the on-switch at the back of my computer where I can’t reach it? And make the keys on the keyboard difficult to press?’”

David realised that he wanted to use the power of good design to improve the lives of people with reduced physical mobility just like himself.

He went on to enrol on an MA in product design and it was while studying at the Royal College of Art that he and classmates and friends Simon Gue and Richard Frost won a competition to design a wheelchair for the estimated 80 million people living in the developing world who were suffering from lack of mobility the most.

“It was like a million doors opening in a circular room in front of you,” he says of the possibilities that college unleashed.

After graduating the trio secured sponsorship to go to Bangladesh and India to make the project a reality. “Our six months there were very exciting and at times challenging,” says David, who lives in Bristol. “I have no body temperature control and the heat was oppressive. A table fan and a garden sprayer were my only relief.”

BACK home in the UK they founded Motivation and over the next 10 years, by travelling to far-flung and remote locations – in the early days by VW camper vans – built low-cost wheelchairs and the workshops to keep providing them into the future, everywhere from Poland to Romania, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka.

Eventually they built 22 workshops in 18 countries delivering wheelchairs to more than 18,000 people and all made from local materials. “In Cambodia there are no suppliers of steel so we redesigned it out of wood and gave it three iconic wheels,” says David, who was married for nine years before his divorce.

But they wanted to reach more people so in 2001 they set about developing a new mass-produced flat-pack set of designs for wheelchairs. Since its launch in 2005 this range has improved the lives of “hundreds of thousands” more people and he was awarded the MBE in 2010.

“The right wheelchair is just the start,” insists David. “Our vision is a world where disabled people are fully included in all aspects of life.

“To really put the wheels in motion we give disabled people the training and support they need to be healthy, confident and included in society. And they’re not the only ones to benefit – families, communities, even economies feel the positive change.”

His latest plans go further still. The Motivation team is experimenting with 3D printing to enable more bespoke chairs as well as working with the Indian government to upgrade wheelchairs across the country.

“I feel I’ve lived a slightly charmed life,” says David. “If I had not had my accident I would not be doing this. I’m not spiritual but I really believe I am now doing what I was put on this earth to do.”

To find out more go to motivation.co.uk and to follow Constantine’s adventures in independent living follow him on Twitter at @constantinedp #ATChangedMyLife