Video: Patsy Forbes wins Lifetime Achievement award

Life in the fast lanes of business and sport continue to drive Patsy Forbes at 72 - an age when most people are taking things a lot easier.

But it’s this personal determination to succeed which has driven Patsy since he left school as a teenager to work in his dad’s grocery shop before going on to set up his own furniture business at the age of just 21.

And it has paid off for the well known Mid Ulster businessman whose contribution to the local community over the past six decades is immeasurable.

Due largely to his endless supply of energy Patsy has employed thousands of people in the Ardboe and Magherafelt areas.

He began making house furniture in Ardboe in 1965 and selling it through a shared showroom in Portadown, and since then has owned and managed two furniture retail businesses, a kitchen business, and a contracts business that now specialises in furnishing and fitting schools and colleges, health trusts, and the hospitality, hotel and leisure industries.

He has been involved in several significant development projects in Mid Ulster including a current proposal to develop an industrial workspace that is set to create hundreds of jobs in East Tyrone.

Patsy has represented local business interests tirelessly, most notably as the Chairman of Manufacturing NI. His principal role there was to force the discussion on industrial de-rating that led to Stormont maintaining rates at 30%.

Patsy Forbes is also an accomplished sportsman - a fact recognition in when he was asked to carry the torch during the Olympic relay in the build up to the London Games.

In recent years he has excelled over 100 metres at the World Masters Games, but he has also took part in rugby, boxing and GAA in his younger days.

Perhaps more than anything Patsy is a people’s person - a tireless and selfless organiser, committee member and fundraiser whose achievements in business and in the wider life of Mid Ulster, are deserving of Lifetime Achievement recognition.