Because Your Potential Doesn't Always Fit A 9-5
A community where you belong, connect and build skills that matter.
The Story Behind Ablepreneurs®
Built from lived experience. Growing through community.
Ablepreneurs® is a UK community for disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent entrepreneurs, freelancers and creatives who want to build meaningful, sustainable careers and businesses without pretending their health, energy or access needs do not exist.
Here, ambition is welcome. Rest is respected. And nobody has to justify why a rigid, one-size-fits-all way of working simply does not work for them.
But, how did we get here...
Emily Kathleen Renshaw
Our story began long before Ablepreneurs® had a name
Nearly a century ago, a seven-year-old Shropshire girl called Emily Kathleen Renshaw lost her leg following a devastating medical mistake.
Kathleen grew up in a world with little understanding of disability and almost none of the access, protection or opportunity we would expect today.
Her future could easily have been decided by other people’s assumptions about what she would never be able to do.
Then she arrived at Derwen Training College.
Emily Kathleen became one of the first three students welcomed by its founder, Dame Agnes Hunt.
At Derwen, she was not treated as a list of limitations. She was given the chance to learn useful skills, build confidence and prepare for an independent life.
She also met the man who would become her husband.
Together, they built a life that quietly proved something we still need to say today: disability does not dictate the size of a person’s ambition, value or potential.
Emily Kathleen Renshaw with her husband John Podmore
The woman who created a different kind of opportunity - Dame Agnes Hunt
Dame Agnes Hunt understood the damage caused when society confuses disability with inability because she had lived it herself.
Born in 1866, Agnes developed osteomyelitis in her hip as a child.
She lived with permanent pain and found walking difficult, but travelled, trained as a nurse and opened a convalescent home for children in Baschurch in 1900.
Her work with renowned orthopaedic surgeon Robert Jones helped lead to the development of the hospital now known as The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital.
Medical treatment alone was not enough for Agnes.
She saw that many young people were leaving hospital with talent and determination, yet being shut out of working life because nobody had created a route back in.
So, in 1927, she founded Derwen Training College. Its purpose was practical and radical for its time: to help physically disabled young people learn trades suited to them and become partially or wholly self-supporting.
Derwen did not manufacture Kathleen’s potential - It gave that potential somewhere to go.
That distinction sits at the heart of Ablepreneurs® today.
The splint shop at Derwen College
Dame Agnes Hunt
Thw men's workshop in Derwen College
Resilience has a lineage
Emily Kathleen’s quiet strength travelled through the generations.
Her granddaughter, Helen Pugh, went on to build a career spanning more than 30 years across estate agency, insurance, financial services and professional support.
Helen developed the skills every business needs: communication, organisation, problem-solving, relationship-building, and the ability to keep things moving when life becomes complicated.
Then chronic illness and physical disability made traditional, rigid employment unsustainable.
Helen’s ability had not disappeared. The environment no longer worked for her. So she built a different one.
Self-employment allowed Helen to keep using her experience while working in a way that respected her health. It also showed her how many other capable people were trying to build businesses while navigating fatigue, pain, fluctuating capacity, inaccessible spaces and business advice designed for bodies and brains that behave predictably.
From that lived experience, Ablepreneurs® was born.
Helen is now a Theo Paphitis Small Business Sunday (#SBS) winner, a f:entrepreneur and #iAlso100 businesswoman of the year. But Ablepreneurs® was not created simply to collect awards or make inclusion sound good on paper. It was created so fewer people would have to build alone.
From a Shropshire story to a national movement
In 2026, Helen created National Ablepreneurs Day to increase the visibility, recognition, and respect for disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent entrepreneurs, freelancers, and creatives across the UK.
Its founding event will take place at The Wroxeter near Shrewsbury on 16 September 2026, bringing together founders, charities, advocates and supportive businesses.
The full national launch will follow in 2027, the centenary year of Derwen College.
That timing brings the story of Ablepreneurs® full circle.
A century after Dame Agnes created a place where young disabled people could develop skills and build greater independence, a movement rooted in the same Shropshire soil is carrying that belief forward for a new generation of business owners.
The world has changed enormously since Kathleen first arrived at Derwen, and we believe, it still has some catching up to do...
If you’re a disabled, chronically ill or neurodivergent entrepreneur, conventional ways of working may not work for your health, energy or circumstances. But working differently shouldn’t mean limiting your ambitions or building your future alone.
Ablepreneurs® exists to close that gap
Ablepreneurs® is a community of people who understand that reality because we live it too. It’s a place to connect, build practical business and professional skills, grow your network and create opportunities that work with your life - whether you’re developing your career or building a business of your own.
Different needs shouldn’t mean smaller ambitions.
A community that gets it
Connect with disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent professionals and entrepreneurs who understand the realities of working around changing health, energy and capacity. Build genuine relationships, share experiences and grow your network without having to explain yourself first.
Skills you can actually use
Develop practical, real-world skills to help you move forward in your life and develop professional skills to help advance your career or grow your own business. Learn at a pace that works for you and turn useful knowledge into confident action.
Opportunities on your terms
Explore new ways to earn money, progress your skills, and use your experience without forcing yourself into a traditional way of working that doesn’t fit. Define success for yourself, and build towards it with the right people beside you.
You don’t have to build what comes next alone.
Ablepreneurs® is where disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent professionals and entrepreneurs come together to connect, learn and grow.
Build practical skills, expand your network and create new opportunities alongside people who understand that success doesn’t have to follow a conventional nine-to-five path.
Because Entrepreneurship Has No Limits...
Join an award-winning community, make connections, learn new skills and make more impact in a way that works for your body & brain!
