Niall El-Assaad

In 2013, when he was 37-years-old, Niall El-Assaad, was hit by a car while he was out cycling with a friend near his home in Wigan in North West England. The accident left him paralysed from the chest down and he spent around five months in a spinal cord rehab unit, where he learned to drive using hand controls.

On his first trip to refuel his car he experienced problems faced by many of the two million disabled drivers on the UK’s roads. He had to drive around several petrol stations, rapidly running out of fuel, as he tried to find one where staff could help him fill up. He instantly realised there was a problem and used his IT expertise to find a solution.

Using his own money he developed fuelService, an app designed to ease the process of refuelling for disabled drivers. The app, and its associated website (fuelservice.org), can be used to locate and contact a service station where staff are available to help disabled drivers. When the driver arrives the app alerts staff of their pump number and lets the driver know how long the wait for assistance will be.

Shell is the first fuel retailer to implement the fuelService app and, after piloting it at 60 stations around the North West from July last year, it was rolled out to 822 forecourts around the UK this February. Niall is currently in talks with other fuel retailers in the UK and around the world as he hopes to bring the app to as many disabled drivers as possible.

Niall plans to use any proceeds from the app to help support his chosen charities: Spinal Research and the Red Bull Charity, Wings for Life. He is also open to investing in commercial projects to find a cure for spinal injuries.