Driving home from work one evening in 1999, Max’s car was hit side on by a fire engine. As well as leaving Max severely disabled, the accident cut short a highly promising career in advertising. In one moment he became a member of a club he never imagined he would join – that of “the disabled”.

Life changed and Max changed with it. Undeterred by the trauma of the accident and the setbacks that accompanied it, Max set about rebuilding his life, while searching for a renewed sense of purpose, from a wheelchair.

Never mind the daily medical challenges, Max discovered that life for a disabled person isn’t always a walk in the park. Misconceptions and prejudice still prevail; accessibility has improved a lot in recent times, but it’s still not a given, nor often is policy applied sensibly. And the bureaucracy of a disabled life can be crippling.

So Max decided to change things and now dedicates his life to creating a world where people with disabilities can participate and contribute fully, thereby defining themselves by what they can do, rather than what they can’t.

Simply, it is a matter of being seen as human like anyone else: Max, as if to emphasize the point, is also grumpy in the morning.