Nick Sharpe’s role as director of communications for a top renewable energy group involved being grilled by politicians, TV and radio interviews, and negotiating with corporations over multi-million-pound investments.
Nick Sharpe quit his high-flying executive role for a quieter life fixing bikes(Image: Daily Record)
A burnt-out executive from Renfrewshire has told how a devastating mental health break prompted him to bow out of the rat race to fix bikes for a living instead. Nick Sharpe’s role as director of communications for a top renewable energy group involved being grilled by politicians, TV and radio interviews, and negotiating with corporations over multi-million-pound investments.
He had previously spent 15 years as a national newspaper journalist which saw him dispatched to a shooting massacre and take a helicopter flight into an erupting volcano, the Sunday Mail reports.
But two decades of living a high-stress, high-caffeine life eventually triggered a mental health breakdown in December 2023.
Nick, 46, from Langbank, Renfrewshire, said: “After years of feeling ready to take on any challenge, suddenly I couldn’t even catch a train or go to the supermarket without crying. I was crippled with anxiety.
“The thing making me most anxious was the thought of going back to work.
“I was doing my best to put all the expensive therapy techniques into practice… but my brain was screaming at me, ‘Don’t do it’.
“I remember getting off the train in Glasgow one morning and having to lean against a lamppost because my legs were so wobbly. Sweat was running down my back. I felt terror as if I was being forced to meet a monster.
“I desperately wanted to get back to ‘normal’ but eventually, after a particularly dreadful few days of anxiety, my therapist and I agreed that enough was enough. I went home to my wife and said, ‘I need to do something else’.”
Burnt-out Nick has rediscovered his joy for life after setting up Nick’s Mobile Bike Surgery last June – covering the greater Glasgow and Clyde area.
He explained: “When I was thinking, ‘What makes me happy?’ I realised I missed the freedom of getting out and about I’d had before I’d ended up increasingly tied to the office.
Nick speaking at Scottish Renewables Offshore Wind Conference in Edinburgh in 2020(Image: Daily Record)
“I had an epiphany moment when I remembered reading about a guy who once ran a mobile bike repair service.
“I’ve fixed bikes all my life. During lockdown, when there wasn’t much to do, I’d put a post on the village Facebook group offering to help fix bikes for free.
“It was so popular, I almost ran it as another job, fixing about 40 bikes in nine months. I just loved going round the village chatting to people and even received a commendation from the local provost for charitable work during the pandemic.
“I used my old journalism skills to track down an address for the guy I’d read about and we had an amazing conversation where he said, ‘Go for it’.”
Dad-of-two Nick’s life now is a world away from his frenetic, high-pressure media career.
He said: “I was too busy to notice the damage I was doing to myself until it was too late. The problem with the rat race is that the further up the greasy pole you climb, the further away you get from being at the coalface, which was where I was happiest.
“As a director, I was always taking on more responsibilities, including doing TV interviews and appearing in front of Scottish Parliament committee hearings being grilled by MSPs.
“People would think I was knocking it out of the park, but I remember sometimes being almost paralysed with nerves and even gagging over the toilet.
“I was like a swan – appearing graceful on the surface but frantically paddling away under the water.
“The renewable energy sector was under intense scrutiny and I was the mouthpiece for the industry in Scotland.
“I’d meet government ministers and was involved in conversations with prime ministers and first ministers.
“The industry changed from smaller operators dotted around Scotland to massive international corporations coming in to build multi-billion-pound offshore windfarms. It became much more corporate and less fun.
“Then covid struck. We were stuck in the house, juggling a demanding job and homeschooling the kids, with no pressure release of being able to meet friends or family. I think that’s what tipped the balance.”
Nick had previously handled major stress meeting demanding daily deadlines as a chief reporter. He said: “I remember being scrambled to cover the horrendous shooting massacre in Cumbria when taxi driver Derrick Bird killed 12 people.
“I remember driving along seeing bodies lying at the side of the road and he was still on the rampage as we arrived. I was on the last flight out of Europe to Iceland before the spectacular 2010 volcano eruption closed airspace across most of the continent.
“We took a monster truck up the glacier to below the volcano and then we flew in a helicopter pretty much into the ash cloud.
“There were rocks the size of cars on fire, flying past the helicopter. I wrote that it was like gazing into the jaws of hell.”
Years of therapy and medication failed to solve Nick’s crippling anxiety – with a complete lifestyle change proving the tonic he needed.
He added: “I’ve battled with my mental health since I was in my early 20s, but it took many therapy sessions to realise that it was my addiction to the adrenaline which was the problem.
“They say that sometimes things need to get worse to force you to make the change that’s needed – in my case that meant the stress of my job increasing to a point where I just couldn’t take it any more.
“Anxiety is a terrible condition, Imagine feeling like you are just about to walk into the biggest job interview of your life but feeling that way for every waking moment.”
Despite the support of his employer, Scottish Renewables, Nick could not get back to work and after a seven-month absence decided to make the major career change in 2024.
He continued: “I’ve had to create a new normal just to continue as a functioning member of society.”
For more info about Nick’s Mobile Bike Surgery go to: www.nicks-mobile-bike-surgery.co.uk. You can also find him on Facebook or Instagram.