A Cheshire-based company which has developed a tricycle aimed at elderly people and people with neurological or balance challenges is seeking £120,000 on the crowdfunding platform Crowdcube.

Triple Tread was co-founded by Mark Harrison who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2004. He told Insider that he came up with the concept when he believed there was a niche in the market for a "cool alternative” to the limited trike designs available.

Harrison said: "I was trying to bridge the gap between walking with a walking stick and then needing a car for relatively short journeys. The option relevant to me was a tricycle, and to me, tricycles on the market looked a bit like the kind of thing I would have used as a child.

"Because there was nothing there on the market I thought I would create my own."

Triple Tread's product is an upright tadpole tricycle with a patent pending steering mechanism, which has been designed to making cycling more inclusive.

Harrison said: "Traditional tricycles can tip over when cornering, making them dangerous and inaccessible for ten million people with neurological or balance disabilities in the UK alone."

The business has already raised £3,990 from its crowdfunding pitch and is offering investors 16.7 per cent equity in the company. It currently has 22 days left on its campaign.

Harrison said: "The reason why we’ve gone down the equity crowdfunding route is that we need to raise capital to be able to fund manufacture and bring the price point down to a relatively acceptable price point for product consumer for the end use."

Triple Tread plans to use its investment to secure IP overseas, finalise designs, support its initial manufacture and to increase marketing.

Harrison added: "We’d like to see the trike sitting alongside a normal bicycle in a high street store in the mainstream cycle channels rather than being seen as a mobility product.

In addition, Triple Tread has been accepted as a showcase exhibitor at Innovate 2016 with a patent application hoped to be approved in May 2017.

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