A North West entrepreneur has described how he bounced back from a life-changing condition that took away his ability to walk.
Lee Chambers’ sudden illness back in 2014 saw his immune system attack the connective tissue in his joints – meaning that within days, he had gone from playing team sports to lying in a hospital bed unable to feed himself.
Lee, who is from Greater Manchester, was in charge of gaming retail business PhenomGames at the time the illness hit, a firm he had set up during the economic crisis.
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In the seven years since, Lee, now 36, has managed to overcome the obstacles to get his life and career back on track.
His daughter was born midway through his recovery – and Lee has described how it became his ambition to take her first steps alongside her.
Lee now leads his own successful workplace wellbeing business called Essentialise – and was last year named among the UK’s top 50 BAME entrepreneurs Under 50. A psychologist, entrepreneur and radio host, his clients include PwC, RBS, Indeed and Gazprom.
He is from Bolton and lives in the Ribble Valley, and Lee spoke to BusinessLive this week about his truly inspiring life story.
Growing up, Lee became the first member of his family to attend university – which he said set a precedent for his two younger brothers.
But after the achievement of earning his place to study, Lee’s life “began to unravel” – as he neglected his own self-care to the point where he became unwell.
He explained: “Events occurred that knocked my confidence, and I started to avoid doing things in case I failed. I felt like I didn’t have anyone to relate to. I was a crazy mix of ‘entrepreneur, scientist and philosopher’ rather than the ‘normal’ mindset of a young, black male.
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“I was isolated and didn’t have anything to turn to, so I locked myself away from society. I could feel myself spiralling away from life and tried to block everything out.”
After being “rescued” by his parents who took him home, Lee used the time to reflect on his life. He said he realised he needed to fix himself “before worrying about other things”.
Bouncing back, Lee completed his degree and earnt his place on a graduate scheme as a financial advisor.
But difficult circumstances returned to his life once more as the 2008 financial crisis hit. Before he knew it, his training was withdrawn and he was made redundant.
Once more searching for jobs while sat in his parents’ back bedroom, Lee said he remembers asking himself whether things could be any worse.
He explained: “I thought back to my time at university and drew on this resilience to accept where I was and treat this obstacle as an opportunity.
“I decided to take control of my career path and used the money from a job at Bolton Council to create my own video game business, PhenomGames.
Lee Chambers is from Bolton and lives in the Ribble Valley“I had nothing to lose, and fortunately, after a couple of months the business took off.”
The firm saw almost instant success, with PhenomGames taking a six-figure revenue within a matter of months – using that back bedroom as a distribution depot – which led to him buying his first house soon after.
Revenue doubled for the first three years, all the while Lee continued with his job at Bolton Council.
But despite the instant success, Lee was still searching for a role “that I could really engage with”. That was until he stumbled upon an opportunity to work for a charity helping people get back into work.
Having himself experienced trouble finding a job, Lee thought he could make a “real impact”.
He said: “I was able to mentor people going through the same career confusion that I had. I was offering advice, interview support and professional development and to see them gain employment at the end felt amazing.”
Lee said he wanted to understand how he “worked as a human being” – so began taking on as many qualifications as he could.
That included courses in nutrition, strength and conditioning – and football coaching that led him to a role at a sports performance company, and he said: “I was able to gain some amazing experience, but I started to realise that my values didn’t align with the cutthroat industry of football academies.”
Lee Chambers was hospitalised back in 2014But at that point, disaster struck Lee’s life.
He said: “All of a sudden, I was unable to walk. My immune system had begun to attack the connective tissue in my joints and suddenly I was in Blackburn Hospital in complete shock.
“Within a week I had gone from playing team sports to lying in a hospital bed unable to even feed myself properly. It was a slap across the face and a big wake up call. I was 29 years old and I had just lost all of my independence.”
By this time, Lee had a son who was 18 months old and his wife who was six months pregnant.
“I started to question ‘how was this fair?’ My son was asking me to play and my heavily pregnant wife was having to come to hospital to look after me following a day at work,” he explained.
“I can remember looking out of the hospital over the hills towards Bolton where I had grown up, thinking how I hadn’t been grateful enough for so many things in my life.”
Lee knew he had to bounce back – with his children his “biggest driver”. It took him 11 months to walk a mile unaided – and his daughter was born during his recovery.
Lee set himself the challenge of being able to walk before she could.
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“This gave me the drive, consistency and vision to keep going through the setbacks. This helped me to see that what was important was to do what I wanted to become, rather than do what I felt like, because most mornings I was stiff and in pain and didn’t want to help myself until I realised that it was in my control and I wanted to play with my children.
“It took some time to sink in about how serious it actually was, and when I reached that point, I had doubts about where my life was going to go.
“But I hit upon a place of gratitude for what I did have, and realised that I had the chance to get back on my feet if I did everything I could to get there.
“I took ownership over my suffering, accepted the situation and committed to get back on my feet, for myself but more importantly for my children. I look back now and realise that it happened for me, rather than to me, to get me to a place where I had to dig deep and surprise myself with what I could achieve.”
He said now, years later, he is back “70% physically – but 200% as a person”.
He said: “Through all the physio and hydrotherapy, I was never offered support for my mind to understand the reality of chronic illness.
“As a result, I developed the idea for my new company Essentialise, that aims to help people achieve their potential through coaching and workplace wellbeing.
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Lee said with 2020 having been a year of huge adversity for most, his mission is now to “positively impact” one million people in his lifetime with his firm, which has offices in Preston and Bolton.
He said: “It’s never the easiest to reflect back with pride, because it often just feels like my life’s journey and I did what I needed to do.
“Now I’m on this mission to empower others, this feels like something that is generating a sense of pride, and I’m gradually getting better at taking the time to celebrate the smaller wins in life. Because I’m fuelled by such an ambitious mission, it can be challenging to stop and reflect on what I have achieved, and often it’s the words of others that really hit home.
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Lee said his vision for Essentialise is “for it to become the chief people board for SMEs” – giving access to world class effective services from wellbeing to performance, culture to inclusion.
He said: “People will be the drivers of change and ultimately are those who fuel the purposeful business that are already solving the problems of tomorrow today.
Read More Related Articles Have you seen our new BusinessLive North West LinkedIn page?“Humans can achieve amazing things when given the platform to thrive, and this is what drives Essentialise to help businesses cut through the noise and find the few essential elements that they need to flourish as an organisation.
“As for the future, I’m hopeful and optimistic, and even in these uncertain times that can feel like the middle of winter, the spring is not far away, with green shoots and opportunities if we keep our eyes wide and our hearts open.”
October marks Black History Month 2021 – a period Lee said is a “chance to reflect on the past and look to the future”.
He said: “My ability to build a business and make an impact for the next generation is a direct result of the suffering and struggles of those before me, creating the opportunities and freedom for me to do so.
“I reflect on everyone, Black or otherwise, who has supported me, encouraged me and given me a platform to make a difference and empower the lives of others.
“The next generation of Black leaders and changemakers will achieve so much more than I will, but hopefully one day I will be able to look back and see that a little part of what they do was positively impacted by the work I do today.
“As we look to create a more equitable society, it is important we learn about the past, while creating more action in the present that will become the Black history of the future.”
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