A New Life:From sailing to massage, Anthony Shanks tells Michael Kellyhow breaking his back made him think about life
Born in Belgium and raised on the Isle of Wight, Anthony Shanks has had more careers at 35 years of age than most of us have in a lifetime and there's a dynamic energy to him that suggests there might be a few more to come.
Brought up in the yachting town of Cowes on the Isle of Wight, Shanks was immersed in the sport of sailing from an early age and initially planned a career in shipping.
"I always thought that I would go in to shipping because my eyesight was too bad for the navy," he says, "but I discovered while doing Marine Studies at Plymouth University that it wasn't what I wanted to do."
After dedicating a year to sailing when he finished university, he "fell into" a job in IT recruitment in London. "It was around 1995 and Windows was the hottest thing on the planet. We were working with companies to find them developers and you just couldn't fail to make money."
In 2000, with the IT industry in a slump, he left recruitment to establish a boat-building company with friends. "As it happened it was the worst possible time to get into it because as the tech stocks collapsed the people who had money, no longer did.
"It was utterly cut-throat - they say that if you want to make a small fortune in boat building you must start with a large one."
Competing at a sailing event in Dún Laoghaire in October 2000, he met his wife, Tara, and it was this budding relationship which brought him to live in Ireland permanently. "She was an auctioneer at the time and doing very well. It would have been illogical for her to give that up and come to live in England, so I moved here."
Shanks also made the decision to sail professionally and paired up with Max Treacy, an engineering graduate from Trinity, to go on the International Star Class circuit. Given that there is no prize money for these events, who pays the wages?
"It is a combination of having some money ourselves, getting some funding from the Sports Council and having a series of sponsors. Tara was also massively supportive. Nobody gets into sailing to make money. The aim is to not lose money.
"We would spend the winter training in Miami, then focus on the Spring Euros in April followed by the Worlds and European Championships in the summer. There are around 10 or 11 events a year and massive amounts of travel."
Despite encouraging finishes at the preceding World Championships, the duo failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics. That setback was the start of a miserable summer for Shanks. In August he slipped down the hatch of a boat in Howth, falling six feet to the ground and breaking his back.
"I completely crushed the top lumbar vertebrae and spent four weeks in a bed in Beaumont Hospital without being able to move an inch. It was a very depressing time for me. I had an amazing consultant and I remember asking him whether I would walk again and he said I would.
"And then I asked him could I
sail again and he said there was no reason why not. Breaking my back was a fairly seminal moment for
me - it really makes you stop and think about what you want out of life."
Four weeks to the day after the accident he walked out of hospital. "My back gradually healed itself and it is now stronger than it was before - the human body is incredible."
Indeed, just 24 weeks after his accident Shanks competed with Treacy at the 2005 World Championships in Argentina. He proudly shows me a framed photo of their boat leading the race with the Buenos Aires skyline in the background.
They eventually finished a credible 18th, a monumental achievement considering the injury from which he had just recovered.
After Argentina, the pair decided to take a break from sailing. Looking around for business opportunities, Shanks focused in on massage.
"I had a lot of deep tissue work done after I broke my back and I was unable to find anywhere that really specialised in massage. There were plenty of people doing it in their front room but it was very much a cottage industry."
His new business, Bodytime, opened its doors in Baggot Lane in January 2006. Six therapists work at the Ballsbridge premises and the company is doing an increasing volume of corporate work.
"We take over a boardroom and send in a team to do massage for employees. It's very good for productivity and is proven to reduce absenteeism. It was difficult to convince employers of this at the start, but now they are coming to us."
Shanks and Treacy have returned to sailing and were fourth in the Spring European Championships this year. They are currently training with an eye on qualification for the Beijing Olympics.
Meanwhile, there's another new project on the horizon - he and Tara moved from Dublin to Durrow in Co Laois and bought Newtown House, a restored 18th-century house and mill building (complete with one of the country's largest working water mills).
"It is probably a five-year project but we want to turn this into a home and business that has a zero carbon footprint and eventually to have the mill building as a conference or retreat centre.
"It's a huge responsibility to refurbish something that was such an integral part of this community. I feel massively daunted by it but I think it's something we can manage."
Given the adversity that he has overcome in the past - would you bet against him?