The mobility industry is divided squarely into two camps.  On the one side you have the big multi-national healthcare giants, such as Siemens, and on the other side you have dozens of smaller companies usually founded by one man and his dog in a bedroom somewhere in rural England.

These companies, of which there are many, are one of the pleasures of working in the mobility industry.  They are usually founded by an inventor, often with a disabled relative, who needed to come up with a mobility solution – fast.  After many months amidst oil, grease and a cluttered garage, these inventors often create ideas good enough to go into mainstream manufacturing production.

What makes these companies so appealing is that they have been founded on proper values.  The emphasis is firmly on providing really effective mobility solutions above anything else, often with the whole family engaged in marketing and selling the products.  To say they are ‘quaint’ might sound patronising but there is something profoundly endearing about these small family companies.

One such company is Bath-Knight, named after its founder and inventor, Bill Steadman.  Created in 1989, the company is truly a family concern with daughters, sons, uncles, granddaughters etc all joining the company to make it the success it is today.

What was Bill’s original invention?  The Bath-Knight.  It’s a bath lift which attaches itself to the bath wall.  Nothing original there you might ask?  Well, not so.  Many bath-lifts are bulky contraptions that sit outside the bath and look like a mutant cross between building scaffolding and a shopping trolley.  Pretty they’re not.

What makes Bath-Knight so popular is that the bath lift fits unobtrusively on the bath wall.  It’s aesthetic, relatively small (considering some of its rival contraptions), and is well-designed. 

Bath-Knight

One of the more obvious problems, and one which I was originally worried about, is that if the supporting wall is made out of plasterboard, wouldn’t the Bath-Knight collapse?  Not so – the firm’s engineers have a few tricks up their sleeves to ensure the Bath-Knight holds steady in almost every circumstance.  It also holds up to 20 stone which is a terrific motivation to lose weight if you’re 19 stone and thirteen pounds. ;-) .

At the website Mobility Compare, the team is highly disposed towards bath lifts.  Why? Mobility baths can be quite expensive and sometimes demand awkward plumbing procedures which all add to the final bill.  Bath lifts, on the other hand, are cheaper and don’t demand existing baths to be ripped out.  The Bath-Knight, for example, starts at £995 including installation.

Winner of the Business of the Year Award in 2005, the Stoke-based company is going from strength to strength with thousands of happy customers.   As for our comments about the endearing nature of family run mobility companies, what multi-nationals would have a poetry page on their website???  Not many…..