Francesco was paralyzed in a diving accident in 2002. “The second that I dove in my chin hit the bottom of the pool,” recalls Francesco. “My head snapped back with such force that I shattered my C4 vertebrae. And I was completely paralyzed in the blink of an eye.”
Fighting past a grim prognosis
When the surgeon announced that Francesco had a slim 19% chance of surviving not only the night of the accident, but the rest of his life, Francesco’s mother turned to the surgeon and said, “Well, you don’t know my son … and you don’t know the courage and strength that was going to be behind all these events.” Francesco says that what he felt his mother was truly saying was not so much that the doctor didn’t know Francesco, but more, “You don’t know my family.”
Francesco began intense physical therapy, and it was in the weeks and months following his accident that he began learning about and dealing with the secondary issues of a spinal cord injury. One of those issues is the absence of sweating. “My skin stopped sweating,” shares Francesco. “And as soon as my skin stopped sweating, it couldn’t re-balance itself.” Francesco tried every skin product on the market, even prescription medication, but nothing helped.
Frustrated with the lack of success, and motivated by having met Christopher Reeve, Francesco decided to develop his own line of skin products. “Clark’s Botanicals started more as something that would bring your inner strength forward,” he says.
A successful business
Over 5 years, Francesco worked with his father to develop just the right formula for his botanical skin care line. And in terms of developing the business, “I think everyone in the family has been involved,” says Francesco’s brother Michael. “We are a family-run business,” says Francesco. “We are completely independent.”
With Francesco as president, and his family behind him, Clark’s Botanicals has become one of the top selling products on QVC. And they are growing rapidly having recently launched products in both Russia and Canada. In addition, Clark’s Botanicals products are featured in the amenity kit program of a major US airline.
“For me, it was about getting to a point where I felt so frustrated that I broke free,” says Francesco of his road to developing and launching his botanical products. Clearly both Francesco and his family have defied his doctor’s initial prognosis. Because not only is he surviving, he’s thriving in a big way.
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