{"id":350220,"date":"2025-08-16T22:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T22:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/350220\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T22:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T22:52:14","slug":"i-quit-my-job-from-hospital-and-gave-myself-six-months-to-make-it-in-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/350220\/","title":{"rendered":"I quit my job from hospital and gave myself six months to make it in business"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Sam Byrne and Charlie McDonough teamed up, it was a match made in heaven<\/p>\n

22:57, 16 Aug 2025Updated 23:05, 16 Aug 2025<\/p>\n

\"SamSam Byrne, 25, has recently been appointed co-owner of The Block P(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

Two friends who were seriously injured in separate accidents now run a successful business with a loyal following in the city. The Block P, a clothing and trainer store in Liverpool city centre<\/a> has become one of the city\u2019s go-to destinations<\/a> for trainer lovers, with a huge range of Nike 110s displayed on its walls.<\/p>\n

The business was started by Charlie McDonough, 29, from Aigburth<\/a>, with \u00a312 in his bank account.<\/a> Charlie had a car accident when he was 18 and following this, he decided to turn his love of trainers into a business. He started off on sites like Depop and Vinted selling second hand trainers, which were so popular that he soon opened his own shop on Renshaw Street in Liverpool city centre.<\/a><\/p>\n

Sam Byrne, 25, has recently been appointed co-owner of The Block P, which has grown its own community of trainer lovers in the city. Like Charlie, Sam also suffered an accident which prevented him from working after he fractured his skull playing football.<\/p>\n

Instead of keeping his job and waiting to recover, Sam quit and gave himself six months to make it in business. He found an opportunity in August 2022 after talking to Charlie in the Block P shop.<\/p>\n

Three years later, the business is thriving – and has even received recognition from Nike HQ and gifted trainers by Araloyin Oshunremi, star of Netflix\u2019s<\/a> Top Boy. Block P also sell their own original products which have proved popular, such as slippers made in the style of 110s.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the ECHO<\/a> about how he got involved with the business, Sam said: \u201cI had an accident, I was playing football like I’d done a thousand times before. On this particular night I went up for a header, fractured my skull, had a few bleeds on the brain, and ended up in hospital for a few months.<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to quit my job when I was in the hospital because the recovery was expected to take six months. I didn’t particularly like my job anyway, so I thought, I’m going to give myself six months to make something of myself and try to run a business.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Co-ownersCo-owners Sam Byrne (left) and Charlie McDonough from Block P(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

After leaving hospital, he saw that Charlie had opened The Block P shop on Renshaw Street. He had followed the business since its early days when it was selling shoes on Depop.<\/p>\n

After Sam went into the shop with a friend, he got talking to Charlie and the rest is history. The Block P are planning on transitioning to focus more on the brand, thanks to the success of products such as the slippers.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe just hit it off and I thought, there’s something in this. I’d had a bit of money behind me from investing in the stock market. I had a few really profitable trades and I’d also bought and sold on Depop and Vinted for years, so I had a bit of an understanding and I’d started a reselling page myself selling trainers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just backed myself and thought, I’ll come and work here for nothing. So we came to a deal where I would spend one day a week in the shop and sell my shoes.<\/p>\n

\"CharlieCharlie McDonough who founded The Block P(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn’t take a wage or anything, I’d just sell my shoes in the shop. Then one day turned into two, turned into three, and then I was pretty much there every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe business is great and we’ve got such a big community who love what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as bringing different skills to the table, Sam could emphasise with Charlie, who started The Block P after an accident of his own. He said: \u201dAs soon as I met Charlie, we hit it off straight away because we’re very similar characters in that we both have drive and ambition and we both want make something of ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re not just going to take the easy route. We both faced adversity and we both came up the other side of it and tried to make something of ourselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI obviously had a bit of a different background, so I had different experiences than him. He had started it with nothing and built it up and brought it to what it is now. I had a bit of knowledge of money, business and accounting. It was a match made in heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n

The business is now looking to give back to Liverpool. On September 28, Sam, Charlie and others will run the Aintree<\/a> Half Marathon for men’s mental health charity James’ Place.<\/p>\n

Sam said the group have chosen the charity after two friends sadly took their own lives. They are taking on the challenge even though they are not runners and will be doing the half-marathon in their 110 slippers.<\/p>\n

Sam said: \u201cYou tell people you\u2019re doing a half marathon, and they say okay. Then you mention the slippers and they’re like, oh my God, you’re going to do long term lasting damage to your feet, what are you doing?<\/p>\n

\u201cBut at the end of the day, we wanted to do something and we wanted to make it a challenge, just like running The Block P is hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people in our community will suffer with mental health. They can look at what we are doing running this half marathon and think, do you know what, they’re just normal lads, I’ll get out and I’ll just run one kilometre, I’ll go to the gym or whatever it might be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it inspires one person to do something and get themselves in a better place, then that’s what it’s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back, Sam is delighted with what he and the rest of the business has achieved so far. He said: \u201cI’m so grateful to be where I am but it’s because I’ve put in the work to get here over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s the work you do when no one’s watching, that counts for me – when your friends are going out on a Friday, Saturday night and you say no.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe, Charlie and the business have come so far but it’s weird because at the same time, we know we’ve only just started.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Sam Byrne and Charlie McDonough teamed up, it was a match made in heaven 22:57, 16 Aug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,51,393,2584,4884,179,2349,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-350220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-fashion","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-liverpool","14":"tag-liverpool-city-centre","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115040901228916299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}