STEPHEN Collins is a man for whom obstacles just don’t exist.

The battling Huddersfield entrepreneur has just launched an online store to complement Lazarus Mobility, his business which supplies living aids to people with disabilities.

He’s providing all the crockery at a school for disabled children in Tanzania and he’s busy planning a sponsored bike ride for a cancer charity.

What’s more, Stephen is planning to buttonhole Duncan Bannatyne from TV’s Dragon’s Den, who is presenting the trophies at the November 27 national Shaw Trust Star Awards, for which Stephen has been shortlisted.

Behind it all is his driving ambition to help others.

“My business is about helping people, so when I saw a GMTV story about the school in Tanzania adding a dining room it was logical for Lazarus Mobility to offer help,” says the married father-of-one.

The new ventures are just the latest in a long line of outstanding achievements by the 47-year-old, who lives in Longwood with wife Sally and 14 year-old daughter Rose.

He is now making a remarkable success of his third career, despite the fact his parents were told he’d never work, drive or get married when he was born with cerebral palsy.

It was Stephen’s lifelong determination not to be limited that led this year to his triumphant win of an Individual Achievement Award at the regional Star Awards held by the Shaw Trust.

The trust provides employment services to people disadvantaged in the labour market by disability, ill- health or social circumstances.

Then he was poised to launch his website – www.lazarusmobility.com – but it’s up and running now and he can take orders from all over the country for not only standard living aids but also new and innovative products not widely available in the UK.

Steve Garth, general manager at Jaguar dealer Perry’s of Huddersfield, was only too happy to do business with Lazarus Mobility.

He has provided Stephen with a Jaguar X Type at a special rate, in return for promoting on the website the dealership and its sales for Mazda and Jaguar under Motability, the Government scheme which helps disabled people buy a car using their mobility allowance.

For Stephen the arrangement means he’s back behind the wheel of his favourite model once more, having been forced through health-related early retirement to give up an earlier Jag after leaving his job at the NHS as a computer systems manager last year.

“It broke my heart,” he admits ruefully. “When I was young I was told I would never drive a car and yet I passed my advanced driving test.

“When I did that I promised myself that one day I’d have a Jaguar.

“I have a good relationship with my local dealer and when they said they’d sponsor my company I felt fantastic.”

Steve Garth describes Stephen as an “absolute Jag nut”, adding: “His is an amazing story and he’s an incredible person. He’s very welcome here and we knew that this would be a successful commercial arrangement. We wish him every success on the national Star Awards night.”

Tireless Stephen plans to continue driving his business forward at the November 27 event – and if you want advice on how to succeed who better to ask than Dragon’s Den favourite Duncan Bannatyne?

Duncan will be congratulating the winners and handing out the prestigious awards at the ceremony and Stephen plans to make the most of the opportunity.

“I’m going to talk to him as much as I can,” he vows. “I will ask him for advice and where I can go to get some further funding and investment.”

Stephen, never one to do things by halves, is not just overseeing the expansion of his company – his ultimate plan is to create a number of regional megastores, offering a ‘one-stop-shop’ – when he spotted the GMTV appeal to help build and kit out the dining room of a school for disabled children in the Geita region of Tanzania, he was quick to act.

He has given a cup, plate and dish for each of the 80 children.

“Ideally I would love to take them myself. That would be fantastic and if I got the right backing, I don’t see why not,” he says.

“I don’t give up and where there are obstacles I try to go round them. I don’t just stop. I am determined because I have had to be. I’m not looking for pity, I’m a businessman and my driving force is that I want to help people.

“Of course I have to make money, because I’ve got bills to pay. But helping people is the most

important thing of all.”

Meanwhile Stephen is planning to undertake a sponsored bike ride next year for a cancer-related charity. “It’s a cause close to my heart because my dad died of cancer,” he says.

For now he’s focused on his new website – and the national Star Awards. “I’m looking forward to it,” he says.

Duncan Bannatyne, brace yourself...