The Beginnings
The idea for this project came from my own experience of breast cancer in 2003. Whilst running a successful consulting business, working from a large home office with professional staff and juggling demands of clients with a very young family, I was diagnosed with a malignant tumour.
My marriage was also falling apart and my husband was a large shareholder in my business, plus we had combined borrowings into 7 figures. After I’d come to terms with the shock, my treatment was planned involving a first operation (followed quite swiftly by a second). But where could I go afterwards to convalesce, research further treatment and possible life-style and business change options (including whether I wanted a separation) and put myself in the strongest position to recover completely and begin to turn my own life around?
we feel we are in a perfect position to help clients manage life changes and re-emerge happier, healthier and stronger
There seemed to be two main contrasting options: either I could go to a health farm which would provide the rest and some relaxing therapies, though often administered by beauty therapists whose training has usually been geared towards more superficial, cosmetic treatments; or I could go to a retreat centre, most of which seemed very monastic, and whilst providing food for the spirit and soul, would not necessarily provide the physical comfort and relaxation I needed.
There seemed to be nothing in between or which was truly ‘holistic’. I also really needed good financial and legal advice, which neither of these options included.
One positive outcome from the diagnosis was the triggering of a critical illness payment.
I considered how I could invest this money wisely whilst using it to help other people in similar situations, not necessarily with cancer but possibly in other critical situations – extreme stress, depression, on the brink of or recovering from a breakdown or marriage break-up, business failure, huge career set back or just total burnout.
Having experienced all of these traumas in the course of my life, I felt a real desire to give back some of the life wisdom and growth I had gained through them.
So I bought an attractive, light 3 bedroom apartment in a modern development and spared no expense in setting it up to a very high standard where there was everything one would need for comfortable living, but nothing (such as the usual household clutter) that one wouldn’t. I then put together a team of professionals to provide the care and therapy I believed from my personal and professional experience, would be able to literally ‘save somebody’s life’.
Thus the Life Turnaround project was born!
Since then I have got divorced, moved home twice, resettled my children, rebuilt my core business (Portland International) and relaunched the Lifeturnaround project with an additional venue - with both venues also available as serviced accommodation when not in use. I feel very blessed to have found a new path but am sure the path might have been easier if I had experienced this service myself.
Given all the current crises in the World, not least in the financial markets, where some people’s lives seem literally to be falling apart, we feel we are in a perfect position to help clients manage life changes and re-emerge happier, healthier and stronger.
Melinda Beckett-Hughes