Tomcat founder Bob Griffin and Nazia White introduced Tomcat tricycles at Mobility in 2024
The events took place over two days where specialists could learn from the makers of Tomcat everything about the tricycles
How one little boy helped change the lives of over 10,000 others
In 1997, Tomcat’s founder, Bob Griffin, met his wife Anne and her son Thomas. Bob and Thomas soon became fast friends.
Thomas was born with a profound disability – Angelman’s Syndrome – which causes severe learning and communication difficulties, sleep disturbance and poor coordination.
Bob felt that if he could help Thomas exercise more and sleep better, it would improve the wellbeing of the whole family. Yet he quickly discovered that no one manufactured trikes to properly support learning disabilities or blindness.
“The Tomcat business wasn’t built to try and earn a buck… It started because there was such a need for this sort of trike for children like Tom, who needed Bob’s help because no one else cared enough to really change things.” Anne Griffin
As an experienced engineer, Bob decided to put his skills to good use, and began designing his very first trike for Thomas. In the years since, many of Tomcat’s innovations have become industry standards, worldwide, and the Tomcat product range has expanded to include children’s disability trikes, adult mobility trikes and ever-more versatile trikes for group settings.
Today, Tomcat has custom-built trikes for over ten thousand people whose previously unresolved difficulties have inspired more than 50 innovations along the way. This has provided mobility, freedom, joy and normality to people with all manner of cycling challenges – both young and old.