The story of why the ViMo wheelchair came into being
In 2008, my late wife Ginny had a stroke that left her unsteady on her feet and unable to walk more than a 50 metres at a time. I realised for both her and my physical and mental wellbeing, we needed to get outdoors into the parks, trails and rivers we once enjoyed.
Conventional wheelchairs proved either too cumbersome and heavy, or not capable of travelling over anything other than small bumps and obstacles.
To fold them often required the removal of footrests and backrests, but still left a bulky and unwieldy chassis requiring a larger car than we owned to transport it.
With nothing commercially available that met our needs, I decided to build one myself. Thus was born the ViMo… Vitality in Motion.
From this first hand-built wheelchair, the ViMo has developed into a multi-configuration vehicle that is easy to use – encouraging the caregiver and those being assisted to get out and about and more engaged with life.
Peter Thompson
NZCE (Mechanical), BE (Mechanical)
Design Engineer