Leicester entrepreneur Mark Esho, has just been named on a list of the most influential disabled people in the UK, after overcoming significant challenges to succeed in the world of business.
The annual Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 was revealed at a London award ceremony on Monday (October 17), with Mark Esho MBE included in the Binance and Finance category.
The Power 100 list is nominated by the public and judged by an independent panel.
Mr Esho said that it was “an honour” to be included on the list, which honours disabled people who are at the top of their game.
Despite becoming paralysed from the neck down at the age of five after contracting Polio, he has gone on to run two successful businesses; search engine optimisation company ‘Easy Internet Services’ and web hosting provider ‘Easy Internet Solutions.’
He was recently awarded an MBE for services to the business community in Leicestershire.
Speaking about his latest achievement, he said: “It’s a real honour to be named in their Disability Power 100 list and to be featured alongside such a worthy list of influential disabled people around the UK.
“The Shaw Trust is a hugely influential organisation whose core values of fairness, equality and opportunity for disabled people resonate with me in my life, work and businesses.”
Mr Esho’s success is even more incredible when you learn that he was given just a 10 per cent chance of survival, after being struck by Polio, 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. He’s also a Co-Founder of disability consultancy Access Rating CIC.
To find out more about the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100, visit: https://disabilitypower100.com/
