A walking cane 10 has an elongate body 12, a hand grip 14, a ground engaging foot 16 and stabilising legs 18 that are movable between a retracted position for normal use of the walking cane and a deployed position in which they extend laterally from the body to support the walking cane in an upright position. Movement of the legs between the retracted and deployed positions is effected by an electric motor or actuator 30 powered by voltaic cells or batteries (34, fig 3). The motor is operated by a switch (36, fig 3) located on or adjacent the hand grip 14. Alternatively, the handgrip may have a sensor thereon which acts as a switch e.g. to detect when the grip is being held. There are preferably three legs which may be moved using a rack and pinion mechanism. The rack may have three rows of teeth (23, fig 5) arranged in planes inclined at 120° to each other. The stabilising legs mean that a user can let go of the cane to use both hands without it falling to the ground.
