It was truly a life-changing moment.

Chris Henry and his family travelled to Madeira – all set to enjoy a relaxing holiday in the sun.

Instead, he spent two weeks in the intensive care unit at a hospital on the Mediterranean island being treated for a life-threatening blood clot – an embolism that had its origins in a seemingly innocuous footballing injury.

“I had been playing five-a-side just before we went on holiday and I got a cut on my shin,” says Chris. “I ended up with a blood infection. I thought I had flu, but I ended up with deep vein thrombosis – a blood clot – in my leg.

“We landed at the airport and got a taxi to the hotel and I was feeling increasingly unwell. It turned out I was very lucky to survive. The fact that I was fit and had never smoked were the things that saved me.”

That experience back in 2006 was a watershed for the Yorkshire-born marketing graduate and qualified accountant – and led to him leaving his successful career in banking to become a self-employed business coach.

“Being stuck in hospital gave me plenty of thinking time,” he says. “I started to ask myself what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I was in my mid-40s.

“I was getting messages from people saying they were hoping I’d pull through and from that moment I looked at life very differently.

“That was the spark for change. I had always wanted to work for myself and help other people – so I decided that’s what I’d do.”

Chris was born in Leeds, but attended primary school in Heckmondwike and a Catholic grammar school in Bradford.

“It was an all-boys’ school next door to an all-girls’ school,” he says, adding jokingly: “There was a fence between the two – and I think it was electrified!

“At school I always liked numbers and I always liked sport. I played a lot of football at a local level.

“I have a theory that you are driven down certain paths – go to school, do well at school; go to college, do well at college; then get a job. It took me decades to learn that there is another way of doing things.

“The most successful people haven’t gone down the traditional path.”

Chris gained a marketing degree at Lancaster University. He says: “It was the early 1980s and there weren’t many jobs in marketing – but there were lots of jobs in finance and accountancy.

“I trained with a firm in Manchester and qualified, but working for a firm of accountants didn’t really excite me.”

Chris returned to Yorkshire and joined Leeds Permanent Building Society – where he was to spend most of his career.

“It was at the time when building societies could start selling other things besides mortgages,” he says.

“I worked in a subsidiary in Pudsey which was setting up a credit card business, It was very exciting and very new. That became the theme for my career in banking.”

Following the society’s merger with the Halifax, Chis moved from Leeds to the West Yorkshire town and worked in various areas of the business, including property and valuation.

He remained with the business through the Halifax’s merger with Bank of Scotland to create HBOS – and its subsequent “rescue” acquisition by Lloyds Bank in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

“We were all watching our screens as the share price dropped,” he says. “It was a difficult time.

“A lot of people in the bank had a big stake in it through their share schemes. People saw their wealth disappear very quickly.”

Chris was involved in project work around the merger with Lloyds, particularly involving the branch network.

When Lloyds was ordered to offload hundreds of branches, reviving the TSB name, he was involved in the project work to “carve out” a bank within a bank.

He says: “It was as big a change as ever happened in banking.”

Chris left Lloyds in 2013 after more than 20 years in the financial sector.

“I decided I would like to do something for me,” he says. “The bank was very supportive. I was pleasantly surprised by that.”

His severance deal provided the financial foundation for his investment in an ActionCOACH franchise to work with small business owners across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire – although his main patch covers West Yorkshire.

His new role brings together Chris’ facility with numbers and the team-leading skills and coaching techniques he honed during his banking career.

“I’m a team player and ActionCOACH is the world’s biggest business coaching organisation,” he says.

“I could probably have set something on my own, but the network you have got with ActionCOACH is fantastic.

“We encourage our clients to plan personally and plan for the business. I like the ‘car’ analogy. You can’t drive a car without a dashboard to tell you how fast you are going and how much petrol you have left. In the same way, you can’t plan your business without information about things like customer numbers, leads and prices.

“When it comes to personal planning, you have to know what you want from the business in the long run. You wouldn’t set out on a car journey and not put your destination in the sat-nav.”

Says Chris: “Too many business owners are tied up in the detail. They are working in the business rather than on the business. I say ‘let’s plan for the future, let’s plan where you want to be in 10 years’ time’.

“A lot of business owners have forgotten why they went into business. We start by asking ‘what do you want out of the business? How does the business serve your personal goals?’”

Chris thoroughly enjoys working with his clients – typically small businesses with turnover starting at £300,000.

“I have met so many people since I left Lloyds through networking and staging seminars,” he says.

“There’s a place at Dean Clough which does 3D imagery – it’s like Disney, it’s fantastic. I have learned more in the past 15 to 18 months doing this than I learned in 24 years at the bank.”

Chris is clear about his own plans. By the end of the third year, he aims to move into office accommodation rather than work from home as at present.

And in 10 years’ time he plans to employ two other coaches to allow him to take more of a back seat.

Meanwhile, his traumatic time in Madeira hasn’t affected his love for the island. Chris and wife Tracy – who works with him – have a time share there and have visited six or seven times since his time in hospital.

“I feel very grateful to the people out there,” he says. “Also, it’s one of the few places in the world where I don’t feel too old because there are a lot of pensioners living there! It’s a lovely place to be.”