F EATURE CHANELLE MCCOY
THE REAL MCCOY Wife, mother, and extremely successful business woman, Chanelle McCoy looks like the woman that has it all, but it has not been without dedication, hard work and obsession for success – does that sound like another McCoy you know? Meet Chanelle
E scaping the August heat, Chanelle enjoyed a video call with TV presenter and friend of Cheltenham Racecourse, Lee McKenzie, to talk life in lockdown, being married to racing’s biggest superstar and her exciting new business venture. After a few rounds of “you’re on mute”, Lee and Chanelle were embracing the new normal and chatting with a coffee. Lady Chanelle McCoy is arguably best known for being married to 20-time Champion Jockey Sir AP McCoy OBE, but there is much more behind the glamorous Cheltenham outfits than people may think. “Probably 90% of people didn’t know I had a job or worked,” Chanelle explains, “because, through no fault of theirs, when you meet them at racing or a social occasion, they just want to talk about AP. And I was okay with that because he was the star of the house and obviously I am incredibly proud.” Chanelle oozes confidence, a smile on her face and approachable to racegoers, fans and anyone she encounters. “I think that comes with self-confidence. Not having that need to shout about what you’re doing because people aren’t really interested.” The tables began to turn in 2015 when the legendary Sir AP McCoy hung up his boots. As he was waving goodbye to the Weighing Room, Chanelle was beginning a new journey of her own overseas in Ireland. “I became an investor on Ireland’s series of Dragon’s Den and it certainly surprised a few people!” Despite having worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 18 years, building her family business into multi- million pound global company, many of her friends had no idea about the level of success she had achieved in her own right. “Being a Dragon was really nice; it meant that I was able to kind of shine a little bit after AP retired. He is incredibly supportive, he finds it really interesting and if I’m honest, if you’d asked him during his career what I did in my job, I don’t think
he would have had any idea – he’d just say ‘she does something with pharmaceuticals!’” Now, having been locked down together he has been hearing her on conference call after conference call as she launched her new CBD product for her company, Pureis. CBD is a popular natural remedy used for many common ailments. It is made by extracting CBD from the cannabis plant. With over eight million people using CBD products in the UK each year, it is a rapidly growing market, and Chanelle and her team are delighted to be able to claim that they are the first CBD food supplement to come on the market that is clinically safe and ultra-pure. “Having been in the family business for so long, it was nice to venture out and do something on my own.” Chanelle co-founded the medical side of the family business with her father in 2000, which together they got into 96 markets around the world. “I drove that for 18 years so I have a lot of experience with knock-backs and trying to break into new markets as well as understanding the regulatory hurdles.” Chanelle emphasises how proud she is of what she achieved in the family business but in 2015 it felt like the right time to do something for herself, which led to research into the healing properties of CBD. “I was inspired by listening to a number of mums, and one particular parent in Ireland whose children suffer from multiple seizures. CBD at a high dosage is very good to control these debilitating seizures. These parents were trying to get access to CBD and they couldn’t and were ending up needing to re-mortgage their houses to afford the products. I thought, with my background in pharma, I am in a really good position to be able to bring out a really good quality CBD product that is accessible. It is all about values before dollars. We love hearing that we have helped people; that is what we wanted to do.” Although Pureis’ initial product is a food supplement, Chanelle explains that this is only step one of the
THE JOCKEYCLUB . CO . UK 19
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