My Stepfather.

Ian had been a long-distance lorry driver all his life and loved it and retired in 2017 at the ripe old age of 65! Plenty of time to enjoy his retirement I thought until a few years later in January 2019 he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. The news hit him and the whole family like a ton of bricks, we were lost for words. A couple of months after the news he had his first session of Chemotherapy and scans showed it seemed to be working and the cancer had not spread any further. Phew!

2020 was a completely different story. My stepfather for years has always suffered from lower back and shoulder pain and his lower back was giving him excruciating pain before his second bout of Chemotherapy which did not seem to work! He suddenly took a turn for the worse and died at home on September 24th, 2020. It was truly devastating for us all…

A few weeks later my mum received the deaf certificate and read it out to me over the phone, I was dumbstruck! To hear the real reason my stepfather died, not from his cancer as we all thought, but from ‘severe progressive discitis’ in his lower back caused by chronic lower back pain he had suffered with for years.

The long-distance lorry driving on the roads of Britain had finally caught up on him, causing him chronic back and shoulder pain and costing him his life! It wasn’t a fate he could easily escape; driving was not just a job for him – it was a passion. He could not do anything about his working conditions, but his working conditions of prolonged sitting finally caught up on him. I felt such a great empathy for his loss and something inside of me started burning up with such a force that I could not let this go!

My Stepfather’s Last Company Before Retirement: Steelway in Wolverhampton

Early 2021 while still contemplating the loss of my stepfather I was reading lots of articles about why so many people were getting seriously ill or dying from Covid. And the Number one reason that kept coming up was ‘due to a weak immune system’ and or already ‘having some type of chronic pain’.

I started delving deeper and looking into the impact prolonged sitting has on health, and it was frightening how big the epidemic is, especially in my field of work, workplace interiors. I have over 2 decades of designing award-winning workplaces, over 15,000 hours of space planning, specifying, and designing over 15 million pounds worth of furniture, and undertaking countless workplace strategy projects for large .com companies.

Our workplaces are full of people who sit at their static desks all day and it’s becoming a silent killer! The BMJ (British Medical Journal) states: “Spending large amounts of time sitting or lounging around during the day is linked to around 70,000 deaths per year in the UK and the NHS spends more than £0.7bn per year treating the health consequences”. And the costs to businesses according to Get A Move On is staggering:  “An estimated 6.9 million working days are lost in the UK due to work-related musculoskeletal problems and the cost of poor mental health to UK business is estimated to be an astonishing £35bn annually”.

After 3 months of intense research, it was plain to see that prolonged sitting causes back, shoulder, and neck pain and it’s the pain that increases cortisol levels which play an important role in balancing our stress hormones. Stress hormones can suppress or break down the immune system’s function!  As a result, your body will be unable to fight against infections, like viruses or bacteria, and you won’t be able to achieve long-term healing. According to a study in the journal Trends in Neurosciences.

Voila!! Your immune system is your defense to your health and well-being!! No wonder so many older people were dying from COVID-19, your immune system deteriorates as you get older.  The excruciating pain my stepfather suffered had compromised his immune system and left him unable to fight against his infection of the disc, which sadly took his life!

Months later while still contemplating how many people were still dying from COVID and my stepfather’s death, an impulse shot through me and woke me up at 2 am while sleeping.  “I may not be able to help people who drive for long distances but I can do something to help people in the office with their working conditions”.

The empathy for my stepfather’s loss transformed into a burning force, and Act_ive De_sk was born. Beyond a business venture, it’s a mission to combat the sedentary epidemic, especially within the realm of workplace design. My expertise in designing interiors for over a thousand commercial projects is fused with a passion for revolutionizing the way we work.

Me out walking with my Jack Russell, Blade!

Through Act_ive De_sk, I strive to break the chains of prolonged sitting, offering not just furniture but quality, affordable solutions and innovations that prioritize health and wellbeing. This journey is a tribute to my stepfather, a man whose passion became both a joy and, ultimately, a silent contributor to his demise.

Join me in this mission. Let’s reshape workspaces, defy the sedentary norm, and build a healthier, happier future for everyone….

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‘TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR HEALTH’
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In honor of my stepfather,
a beloved Blades Fan!

Ian Hawley 🙂

James C Scott
Founder/Creative Director

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MY Stepfather’s favorite artist ‘Rod Stewart: Song entitled ‘Maggie May’,
dedicated to my mum, his beloved wife ‘Maggie’!