LESS than three years ago, workaholic Tony Cooper was close to death after suffering a brain injury.

The businessman was a high-flying partner at finance company Deloitte until a brain haemorrhage led to an emergency operation to remove blood from his brain.

But after being told he was lucky to survive, he left his job, went travelling and changed his life around.

He used the wake-up call to follow his dream and set up a business with best friend Andy Leach.

Mr Cooper, 50, of Wakes Colne, said: “What I thought was a progressively worsening headache saw me admitted to Colchester General Hospital before being transformed to Queen's Hospital, Romford, and operated on the same evening.

“Doctors told me it was a sub-acute, subdural haematoma, caused through a combination of overdoing it at the gym and too much flying – Sao Paulo, Moscow and Dubai via the UK each time within ten days.

“The change in air pressure meant the vein I burst while overdoing it in the gym didn’t clot and I suffered a ten-day bleed.

“Luckily, not only did I survive, but I did so with minimal side effects.

“But the old adage of ‘you only live once’ certainly rang true in my mind as I recovered.”

The dad-of-two took early retirement and went travelling for six months.

He visited 15 countries, starting with a four-week camping trip through southern African countries.

“I did the camping trip as a deliberate contrast to my previous business class life,” he said.

“I’d already fallen in love with Cape Town and the surrounding areas when I’d worked in South Africa, but this four-week stint left a lasting impression on me.”

When Mr Cooper arrived home, the idea of creating wine company Cape London was born over a drink with his friend from school days, Mr Leach.

“We’d been through pretty much everything together – I’d even been Andy’s best man.

“But one of the only things seemingly left on our to-do list was working together.

“We saw a hole in the wine market which we believed we could fill.”

Cape London has now been launched, aiming to help buyers by marketing individual wines and wineries in a more engaging way.

Many of the wines they have picked have inspiring or intriguing stories behind them and the selection comes from South Africa’s Western Cape, New Zealand, Australia, Spain and Italy.

A list of the wines and their stories can be found at capelondon.co.uk