Starting a business in a converted cow-shed is one thing, doing it with regular interruptions from rats is quite another. Despite this inauspicious start, Marcus Ward, who has ME, is a businessman who has an amazing story to tell. Impact Art Group, a consultancy that provides original art to offices and public spaces, now employs close to 30 people. This is a remarkable success when you consider that ME can be very debilitating and is characterised by profound fatigue.

Marcus freely admits that he nearly went bankrupt soon after starting the business because his focus was too narrow. By identifying this he managed to turn things around by moving into supplying architectural artwork to interior designers and architects working on large projects, such as new hospitals, schools and hotels. Today, as well as directly supplying original art to clients, the business also provides broader consultation, delivering art funding strategies and programmes for community arts projects in public spaces and new builds in the public and commercial sectors.

Marcus is particularly proud that his business has won contracts to provide art to Salisbury's mental health hospital, and most recently for two new mental health hospitals for Sussex Partnership NHS trust. "As things have developed I have ended up commissioning a growing number of artists who have mental health issues which has made this particular contract feel really special. My business has given me an opportunity to showcase a lot of disabled artists. The fact that things are going from strength to strength is a testimony that business and talent are out there."