Former government marketing expert Richard Slee, who has returned to the private sector with his own business, has told how a horrific tram accident was a life-changer.

Father-of-two Richard, 52, has taken the bold step of going it alone and setting up his own marketing business in the island.

Mr Slee has taken a low-key approach to the change but it has given him time to reflect on an incident which happened in 1991 when he was in his mid-20s, when he suffered a ’life-changing’ ordeal in an appalling accident on the Manx Electric Railway.

He was travelling on the MER when he fell near Baldrine and the tram ran over his right leg.

It sparked months of surgery and numerous operations on the injured leg as surgeons and doctors in both the island and Liverpool battled to save his limb.

Mr Slee had a summer job on the Manx Electric Railway at the time.

He said: ’I had a big accident. It was life-changing.

’I had 13 operations before the leg was saved. I was flown over to Liverpool to a specialist plastics and burns unit at Whiston Hospital.

’I had pioneering surgery to save my right leg.’

He said his leg had to be reconstructed using muscle, veins, skin and bone from other parts of his body.

’It was a pretty rough time,’ he admitted.

In an exclusive interview Mr Slee also told how :

As a lad his father Donald Slee ran the popular Villiers Hotel in Douglas. ’It was great to grow up in such a vibrant environment.’

He bumped into scores of celebrities and sports people including football stars at the hotel. There were many memorable nights including the time delegates from the Trades Union Congress (TUC), in the island for their conference, crowded into the Cabaret Bar to listen to veteran politician Tony Benn.

Part of an episode of the Channel 4 soap Brookside was filmed in the hotel which was famed for its bars and friendly spirit.

As a young man he studied drama in London and struck up a friendship with Greg Davies who later went on to be a top stand-up comedian. The pair even played the Ugly Sisters in a panto.

Mr Slee is a member of an electro pop duo called the Jules Verne Project which in the last few years has supported groups such as OMD and the Human League at the Gaiety.

He is looking forward to the Grand National this coming weekend. Mr Slee says if he ever went on Mastermnind he would choose the famous Aintree race as his specialist subject. For more than 30 years he has rarely missed the race and once as a lad he correctly tipped the first four in the right order

Talking about the tram accident Mr Slee said he had been working on the MER on the day of the accident during Manx Grand Prix practice week.

’It happened on the way back from Laxey, about 150 yards to the Baldrine station.

’I remember the police showing up and they had to get the tram to move.

’And I remember the ambulance men arriving with a police escort.

’I had slipped and fell, and the tram was still going. I was dragged along a bit and I managed to hold on to the steps at the back of the tram and I fell away to the left, sadly the leg did not.’

The tram had run over his leg.

He added:’I was lying in a foetal position on my left hand side. I was obviously in a bit of trouble and had lost a lot of blood .

’I was conscious and I remember telling a police officer to put the red flag out (to warn) the following trams.

’I did not want to look down because it would have freaked me out and I just needed to stay conscious.

’I resigned myself at the time that I was going to lose my leg.’

touch and go

And indeed it was ’touch and go for some time’ as to whether his right leg could be saved.

He said: ’In the year following the accident I was probably in hospital for more than half of it.’

Mr Slee said he does not often talk about the accident but says: ’It’s weird, it seems like it happened to someone else and not me.

’Sometimes I think that maybe I should talk more about it because if people knew the journey I had been on since then, they might understand a little bit about what motivates me, and that maybe I am not as laid back as people make me out to be sometimes.

I have had to have drive and determination to make myself as well as I could.

’I’ve had other struggles since then. I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome a few months after I left hospital. I’d had constant physio along with the hyperbaric chamber, which was great, and there was improvement.

’But I was still on crutches, there were flashbacks and difficulty sleeping and I was putting on weight.

’I literally had to learn to walk again.

’I was determined to put the work in. At the time the doctors feared I would not be able to walk again without a stick.

round the world

Mr Slee said that after recovering from his injuries he decided to book a round-the -world plane ticket and this proved to be the spark that ended in a new career in marketing.

While travelling in Australia he self-funded a Master of Marketing degree at the leading and prestigious Melbourne Business School.

This was to prove the launching pad for a whole new life in marketing, back in the Isle of Man. This meant working in the private sector, initially, and one of the highlights was working at Manx Telecom for around 10 years.

His career took another turn when he joined the public sector and Isle of Man Government.

He told Business News he started at what was the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in 2008 as marketing manager.

Then two years later the DTI was incorporated within the newly established Department of Economic Development (DED).

Mr Slee is proud of his achievements in government including the work he did on the ’Isle of Man - Where You Can’ project.

He points out that it brought together a wide range of interests from both government and industry.

After the DED became the Department for Enterprise this marketing approach was replaced by the creation of executive agencies last year .

Mr Slee, who lives in Governor’s Hill with his wife Amy and daughters, Eliza, nine, and Emily, eight, said he decided last year it was the right time in his life to look for a new chapter in his life

As a chartered marketer he launched his own business and the intention is to get a website under way soon.

villiers

It’s something of a coincidence that one of Mr Slee’s first clients is the Tevir Group which plans a development on the site of the former Villers hotel, as reported previously.

In a way it brings things full circle for Mr Slee as he recalls his early days at the Villiers Hotel. Mr Slee said: ’We had some great times at the Villiers, it was one of the finest hotels in the island.’

Originally from Farnborough in Hampshire, Mr Slee was just four years old when he came over to the island in 1970 with his parents Donald and Ella.

’My hotelier dad Donald came over to be the manager of the Villiers on Douglas promenade. He helped establish the hotel to being one of the best.

’It was great growing up there and it was still in the tourism heyday then.’

The promenade was a vibrant place then. Mr Slee recalled some of the many people who visited the hotel over the years. Indian cricketer Farokh Engineer attended a charity dinner and also at the same function were Manchester soccer legends Bobby Charlton and Joe Mercer.

’We also met people such as Liverpool soccer legend Kevin Keegan. Just after Liverpool had won their first European Cup in 1977, some of the players came over and stayed at the hotel for a few days. And a year or so later some of the Everton players stayed there.

’We used to get all sorts staying at the hotel. I remember seeing my dad help the actor John Inman put on his fur coat.

’Every night during the summer there was entertainment in the cabaret room.

I remember one week seeing Georgie Fame perform in one of the function rooms.’

’It was like living in a self contained small town in the Villiers.

’From about the age of 12 I worked there at weekends and in the evenings in the kitchen and portering. â?©He recalled the thousands of union representatives that attended the TUC conference.

’I remember washing glasses to the sound of Tony Benn making a speech in the cabaret room.’

Mr Slee’s father went on to run the Howstrake Hotel in Harbour Road, Onchan.

Mr Slee said he initially had ambitions to work in the law profession. He studied at tech, now the Isle of Man College, gaining a business studies qualification.

But he ended up going to London studying for a degree in drama.

’It was not what I anticipated doing but it was really enjoyable and I ended up studying with a young chap called Greg Davies who of course is now doing very well for himself in the world of television and stand-up comedy.

panto

’We did panto together, we were the Ugly Sisters. It was great fun.’

The first time he went to Aintree for the Grand National was 1977 and he witnessed Red Rum’s historic third victory.

’You can still see me in the TV coverage, now on You Tube, standing by the third fence. I was standing with my dad who was in a sheepskin jacket and I’m the small boy with him in a blue coat.’ He has not lost the bug since then and this Saturday he will be tuning in to watch the race on TV as usual.

For anyone thinking of a change of direction, Mr Slee recommends a book called Changing Course.

It is full of inspiration, ideas and insights for starting again from a chief executive who became a golf caddie. The author, Neil Francis, explains how he completely changed his life after recovering from a stroke.