The health scare which made a company director rethink his life

It took a serious health scare for Mike Watkins to realise his biggest lesson: "Your life and your family and being around is more important than a job and an extension."

A director in the construction industry, the father-of-three suffered a seizure in B&Q soon after driving on the M42 motorway.

He was out with his wife and a daughter "being dragged around different shops" before ending up at a B&Q outlet in Shirley, Solihull.

"I started to feel a little bit off. My head suddenly vibrated and my wife turned round to me and said 'what was that?'," he remembered.

"I went 'oh, it's OK, I think I just vibrated'.

"Then she said... 'have you eaten properly today?' And I went 'I've had a bottle of Dr Pepper and a bag of Haribo Starmix'."

He admitted that before his seizure his diet "wasn't the greatest" and he would try to survive on energy drinks to get him through the day.

"In my head it was too important to meet a customer... I'd neglect eating," the father added.

It was later suggested factors in what happened to him in May included stress from running his own business, he said.

The 46-year-old is a director at Use Your Space, builders who operate in Solihull and Warwickshire.

Watkins cannot drive at the moment after what happened and he said he wanted to see a change of "mentality" in his industry.

On the day of his seizure, his wife went to the car to get him a protein bar and water, while his daughter stayed at B&Q and sat him down on part of the patio furniture they were looking at.

"That is the last thing I sort of remember," he added. "She then rang my wife to say 'quick, run back in' and her words to my wife were 'dad's gone'."

His seizure lasted five minutes: "I'd [bitten] the inside of my mouth, I was foaming at the mouth... I lost bladder control in B&Q.

"Since then I've been told and educated on seizures that, for every minute you seize it's the equivalent of doing the London Marathon, so my body endured five minutes of that."

After two days being treated at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham, he admitted he faced difficulties afterwards with work.

"Part of having your first seizure is you have to relinquish your driving licence for six months to [the] DVLA, so running your own business, typically running four, five, six projects at a time... extensions, loft conversions, that became very, very tricky," Watkins said.

He bought an electric bike and systems were put in place so he could start using video calling more with clients of his Wythall-based business.

Watkins, who praised his staff and family, said: "I've had my [neurological] consultation. From the seizure perspective I'm all clear. [They] called it a provoked seizure.

"The suggestions from the consultant are, which is on my letters from them... stress from running my own business, fatigue and overall neglecting myself.

"I still like a kebab and stuff like that, but I'm trying to eat more consistently.

"I'm trying to do a bit more meditation now, I've got an ice bath... I've bought one of these pop-up sauna tents, so I'm trying to give myself a little bit of time and separate work and family."

Two construction workers on average take their own lives each working day, mental health charity Mates in Mind previously said.

Watkins pointed out a stereotype, and admitted "I still carry some of it", outlining "that 'you're a bloke, you should be tough, you should be able to get through it without leaning on somebody'."

"It's made me realise that we need to be a little bit more open.

"Our industry needs to shift... We've got to stop this mentality of like 'we're all tough bloke builders', blah, blah, blah.

"That doesn't exist any more. The world's moved on. We need to be a bit more open."

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