BACK pain has led David Horbury to abandon a lifetime career in hairdressing. It is a salutary lesson to others in the industry because the owner of Lewis Daniel at Beaconsfield had hoped that his children would follow in his footsteps and one day run the business named after them.

According to the back awareness and care charity BackCare, nearly five million working days were lost as a result of back pain in recent years. This means that on any one day one per cent of the working population are on sickness leave due to back problems.

Back pain is the number two reason for long-term sickness in much of the UK. In manual labour jobs, back pain is the number one reason.

Sadly Horbury learned it the hard way about the illness which costs the health service and private medical centres a staggering £1.6 billion per year.

Mr Horbury, 38, who lives in The Ridgeway, Marlow, learned his craft with an apprenticeship at PhilipSharon hairdressers and built a reputation for himself and his business. He is proud that staff at his classy salon in Gregories Road are long standing - nearly 20 years in some cases.

It was a tough decision for the man who had invested thousands of pounds making the salon - staffed by seven stylists and two technicians - special. With leather chairs, high spec salon equipment and works of art instead of standard photos, the business has grown in stature and is an integral part of the community.

This time last year it was business as usual for the sporty six-foot hairdresser who took part in the New York Marathon shortly after the 9-11 tragedy.

Back pain was the last thing he expected, and, despite a range of costly conventional and alternative treatments, he agreed with his wife Justine that he could no longer make a living from the job he loved. He reluctantly accepted the diagnosis that the spinal condition would worsen with constant standing and stooping in the hair salon. His height had finally got the better of him.

An osteopath advised a career change.

"She told me that the body or brain can only heal an area if you are free mentally of the stresses and strains. If it is spending time fighting other things it won't heal. That explained a lot to me and got things into perspective," he said.

While he sought a suitable buyer he obtained a job in advertising at the Bucks Free Press and left the daily care and control in the hands of long-term colleague Sam Prior.

"I can't just manage a shop, it isn't in my nature to do that. I am a hairdresser foremost. We are proud that clients come to our salon as a whole, so if I am not there, there is always someone else to take care of them. It is a wrench and I am desperately sad about it. It's hard learning a new profession because it takes a while before you speak with passion. I am pretty confident with my new role with Business Monthly in senior sales now."

Finding the right sort of buyer was important to Horbury who turned down offers before coming across a quality stylist with a similar people and industry ethic who plans to take the business forward. There will be an announcement shortly after the conclusion of the purchase at the end of May.

Although it has been an emotional wrench giving up the business the good thing about his change in fortune is that he now has time for football coaching Marlow Under 8s with sons Daniel, 10 and Lewis 7.