Norbury siblings have set up a new free dating agency which aims to help the disabled find romance - Kerry McQueeney reports.

A brother and sister from Norbury are bringing romance to disabled couples all over the world thanks to their free dating web site, dedicated to uniting people with mobility problems who are looking for love.

Marina Droutis, 35, and her 28-year-old brother, David Louke, believe they have created their first romance just two months after launching their site DisabledUnited.com.

The siblings, who both live in Norbury Court Road, believe they have cornered a market which is sparsely catered for and have already clocked up an impressive 1,200 registered members in the eight weeks they have been operating.

Marina, a single mother-of-two, teamed up with her musician brother a year ago after having the idea for the dating service.

She said: "My brother's sister-in-law has spina bifida and it got us thinking about how hard it is for disabled people to meet up with people who have similar problems.

"After a bit of research we found that there weren't nearly as many services as there are for able-bodied people. It took us a while to get it off the ground, but a friend of ours who is a web designer helped us get it up and running.

"Since we launched it in January, we've had people all over the world logging on to the site from as far afield as China and America, in fact around 40 per cent of our registered users are from the US.

"We've even got a couple in northern England who got together soon after meeting in one of our chat rooms. Next week we have three couples just outside of Manchester who are all meeting up for the first time."

While the usage numbers have been steadily growing for DisabledUnited, the business is in urgent need of advertising sponsors if it is to remain a free service.

Marina added: "We determined to keep it a free site but would like to attract businesses to advertise with us.

"This whole project has cost us around £6,000, but we need to spend a total of £10,000 to get advertisers interested.

"I run the business from home, which is perfect for me because I'm a mother-of-two. It is wonderful to see how much it has affected people's lives.

"I love logging on and reading about how people are getting on.

"We eventually want DisabledUnited to be the meeting place for all people of limited abilities."

If anyone is interested in advertising with DisabledUnited.com they should contact either Marina Droutis or David Louke on 020 8679 6667.