Disabled entrepreneur Mark Esho MBE has just been named in the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 in the Business and Finance category at Monday’s (17th October) award ceremony in London.
The annual Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 celebrates the most influential disabled people in the UK. The Power 100 list is nominated by the public and judged by an independent panel.
In a world that often overlooks the needs of disabled people, the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 plays a vital role in recognising disabled peoples’ vital contributions to society and is recognised nationally and internationally.
This is an incredible achievement for Mark who was once given just a 10% chance of survival. When he was five years old he became paralysed overnight due to contracting poliovirus at a time when it was meant to have been eradicated from the UK.
Despite being given such a dire chance of survival, Mark not only survived – but he thrived. However, in many ways, his disability was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the challenges he would go on to face.
In the years that followed he suffered horrendous abuse from his father and at the hands of school bullies. He overcame all odds by regaining limited mobility in his body and he graduated from DeMontfort University. However, he struggled to get a job due to racial and disability discrimination.
When he eventually did find employment with a local charity, he was forced to quit due to the deliberating effects of post-polio syndrome. Unemployed and with a young family to support, he set up his first business which failed. At this point, he was living off credit cards and in a perilous situation. His second business, Easy Internet Services trading as 123Ranking, one of the first SEO agencies, was a huge success and paved the way for his successful career in business.
In 2018 Mark wrote his best-selling autobiography, I Can. I Will. He now spends his time mentoring disabled entrepreneurs via his initiative The Circle Foundation and he was recently awarded an MBE for services to the business community in Leicestershire. He’s also a Co-Founder of disability consultancy Access Rating CIC.
