A BACKWELL charity has launched its new multisport wheelchair with the aim of encouraging more disabled people to take up sports.

Motivation hopes its new, low-cost chair will help more disabled people to take part in sports clubs and encourage a wider variety of wheelchair activities.

The multisport wheelchair can used to play a wide range of sports and activities including tennis, rugby, badminton, handball and dance.

Product manager Clare Childs said: “Parents, clubs and schools want to offer as many opportunities for sport as possible, but sports kit can be pricey.

“By creating an affordable sports wheelchair, which can easily switch between different sports, we hope that a wider variety of sports will be accessed by more people.”

According to Sport England, less than 20 per cent of disabled people take part in sport on a weekly basis and the two main reasons stopping them are lack of money and unsuitable sports facilities.

Motivation is a leading provider of wheelchairs and training for disabled people and this is the first time the designers have created a wheelchair which works across multiple sports.

The charity, which is based in Brockley Lane, was also asked by the International Paralympics Committee to design a low-cost racing chair to enable athletes from poorer countries to take part in sports.

The wheelchairs were launched at the Paralympics in 2012 and it is hoped they will enable hundreds more competitors to enter the 2016 games in Rio.

Its equipment is also being given out by aid agencies to people affected by typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

To mark the launch of the new wheelchairs, Motivation is giving away two Multisports chairs.

To enter the competition visit www.motivation.org.uk/win_a_chair before Monday and explain what sport means to you.