We Need To Talk with Paul C. Brunson - Sam Vanderpump Champions Life Changing Organ Donation After Liver Disease Diagnosis

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

Made in Chelsea star Sam Vanderpump opens up about life behind reality TV, the advice his aunt Lisa Vanderpump gave him, and the rare liver disease that now means he faces a life-saving transplant. For the first time, Sam reflects on growing up as part of the Vanderpump family, the pressure of living up to his father’s expectations, and the moment he nearly lost his life to sepsis. He also shares how reality TV unexpectedly helped him process trauma, why he’s determined to use his platform to raise awareness for organ donation, and how love and fatherhood have given him new purpose. Sam shares: ◽ The truth behind the Vanderpump family legacy  ◽ What his father’s death taught him about love, pride, and approval ◽ How Lisa Vanderpump became a father figure in his life ◽ The terrifying day he went into organ failure  ◽ How Made in Chelsea helped him confront his emotions for the first time ◽ The moment media headlines about his illness broke him ◽ Why he’s now fighting to raise awareness for organ donation and liver disease ◽ The message from his fiancée that left him in tears Sam Vanderpump. We Need To Talk. Register your decision to donate here: ⁠⁠https://g2ul0.app.link/gtfy87FcnYb⁠⁠ (00:00) Intro   (01:56) Sam Addresses Public Perception of the Vanderpumps   (04:45) What Sam Learned About Love From His Mum and Dad   (07:31) Sam's Complicated Relationship With His Father   (12:20) Coping With the Death of Sam's Father   (14:48) How Reality TV Helped Sam's Mental Health   (16:40) Why Sam Joined Made In Chelsea   (24:55) Paul Shows Sam a Childhood Photo   (29:45) How Authentic Is Made In Chelsea?   (34:44) Has Made In Chelsea Been Good for Sam's Relationships?   (37:54) Paul Shows a Message From Sam’s Fiancée Alice   (41:08) Aura Frames Ad (42:18) What Type of Father Sam Wants to Be   (45:11) Sam Explains His Current Health Condition   (54:37) Key Statistics About Sepsis   (57:04) Why Sam Needs a Liver Transplant   (01:01:13) Sam Addresses the Media Storm Around His Health   (01:04:36) How the Media Storm Affected Sam’s Family and Friends   (01:06:39) How Organ Donation Works and Why Sam Advocates for It   (01:14:54) Sam Reads a Letter From His Grandmother   (01:17:42) Yes I Donate Message (01:18:58) Liver Transplant Survival Rates Explained   (01:23:24) Sam’s Mum Shares Her Perspective   (01:29:42) A Letter From Sam’s Mother   (01:32:24) Most Memorable Conversation   (01:38:10) Paul’s Takeaways  Sponsored by: Aura Frames - https://auraframes.co.uk 'PAUL' for £45 off Register your decision to donate here: ⁠https://g2ul0.app.link/gtfy87FcnYb⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Yes. Far from that. We are just a family of entrepreneurs. And that's why it was so sad in the way my dad passed away. I never got to achieve my goal or making him proud. It wasn't until I started doing reality TV that I realized how to process those emotions. Everything was perfect and then, bam, smash your hip via freight train. The sepsis came from my liver disease. Wow.

I always get sad when I think my dad's never. going to see his grandchild to now start having that thing dawn on you. Am I going to see my child? That's terrifying. What are you thinking in that moment? Am I going to die? Every newspaper comes out with the headline four or five years left of it. That's not true. And that broke me. So what is the real truth? Hey, right before I go in, I just want to say this. We absolutely love shooting this podcast and we need your help. So hit subscribe. That's how you can help us. So Sam Vanderpump, we need to talk.

Now, you know where I'd love to begin. Where? I always love to find unique correlations between me and the guest. Do you know where your father, your aunt? Do you know where they grew up? Dulwich. That's where I live. Oh, really? Oh, right. Yeah. Okay.

That's really interesting. You know, funny enough, great school, Dulwich school. Dulwich school. Yes. My father, funnily enough, got a scholarship to go to Dulwich. Did he? Yeah. It was amazingly intelligent, really intelligent. So can we unpack that a little bit? Yeah, go for. So your father, Mark Vanderpump. Yeah. Vanderpump is a very famous surname. Yeah. Very famous last name. Right. Aunt who that is, yeah. But really, do you attribute that to your aunt or you do? Okay. Yeah, it's interesting. She's, and she's grown our family name into something, which is, it's amazing to watch.

Like, Vanderpump's always been a cool name to have, so much to the fact, you know, that she wanted that to be her name when she did her brand. But that fame and success has been attributed to it, like, to it is come mainly from her. And I'm very, very proud to follow in those footsteps, you know. Yes, yes. Now, when I look at the Vanderpump name, or I think when everyone from the outside looks, you know, I think there's certain ideas that come to mind, one of which is wealth. But it's not necessarily the background. No.

Right? I feel like the... Far from that. Yes. So what is the background? Is it a little bit more humble than that? Very, very. I mean, we're just, you know, and this is really interesting that you say this.

I had this thought the other day. A lot of people, when they meet, they assume the Vanderpump name is attached to like old money. Yes. Far from that. Far from that.

And is this whole like family dynasty? No, no. We are just, you know, family of entrepreneurs. And really, really, that's what I, when I do my podcast, I speak about that.

And my aunt is just a very successful entrepreneur. My uncle was a very successful entrepreneur. My, my, I believe I'm quite a successful entrepreneur. So everyone in their own right is a very successful entrepreneur, and she's just the one that's taking the Vanderpump name to that. But it's a very, very different thing from what people assume. Yes, yes.

But to your point of it's a family of a lot of entrepreneurs, what I also find interesting is that a lot of the entrepreneurship is within the creative space. Yeah. A lot of creatives. That definitely comes from the Vanderpump side. But your mother was a chef. Yeah.

I mean, as creative. as it gets. For the Royal Family. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, really, really cool. That's, I mean, you need to be... Yeah. She's a fantastic chef. Like anyone who tries her food is like, wow.

Yeah. And also, I mean, my mom's gonna hate me for this saying this. You know what I think my mom's best job is, is like, literally just being like a matriarch in organization. Really? Yeah, she's amazing. So what would you say that you have learned about love from your mom's a major? mother and your father.

That's a question I never thought out here. From what my mum showed me was your kids are the only things that matter. And that's what my mum showed me first had, was all that matters to her is my brother and me

and nothing else. She would give anything for us. And I think that is just such a fantastic quality. And I hope not only do I have that for my son, but I also have that for my fiancé. And I think that is such a tremendous quality. She is so, she's not a selfish person.

She is so selfless. And that quality is something special. Yeah. Love that. Love that. So what about growing up with your father? What did you learn? Because it's interesting when I think about learning about love.

And I think this is exactly how you described it with your mother is it's not necessarily what they say. It's what they do. You felt that unconditional love from your mother. So what did you learn by observing your father? And what was that learning about love? My dad is a very old-fashioned British man. I don't know. There's two sides of my dad.

There was, my dad was very old-fashioned, wouldn't say I love you. but he loved me. He wouldn't say that. But he would show he loved me in the things we did together. So we had a very complex relationship, my dad and I, and he struggled later on in life,

but we had a very complex relationship, but one of our amazing parts of our relationship was the fact we did things together. You know, when I was growing up, I was racing, we did that together. You know, even the small things like I would sit in his office and we would do Sudoku's together and would race each other in the time doing the same Sudoku. We would play online pool together.

We'd play like online shooting games. We'd play all kinds of stuff. We'd build puzzles together. So we had a very strong relationship at times and he showed that being present and having fun with your son. Again, something I hope to carry through to my son. So now if you could go there, the good typically is the light that we try to follow. But the bad is that darkness that we don't want to go down that path, right? So when you think about what you wish you had with your father, what was that?

I think that it's, I always, I always wanted to prove. to my dad that I could I could I just want to make him proud yeah there's one thing with my dad and I don't think and that's why it was so sad in the way he passed away was I felt like I never got to achieve my goal of making him proud of proving to him that I could do it okay and that came out of a situation where any for probably my brother my brother was so intelligent he was so the thing about my brother he was so like my father. They were uncanny. They're both outrageously intelligent. My brother is a straight A-star student

who went to Cambridge and they just had, they, without trying, they would just gel so well. And I think I always tried to gel with my dad. Because we were such polar opposite. I was like my mother and that's why I have such a strong relationship with her. And she, he would, I would try so hard. And that's why I did so many activities and things with him. And I don't think in my head I ever got to that stage or just prove. I felt like I, I don't know, I had to prove something. And my brother made a comment to me.

It's like, many years ago, I think he was like, it's like you're always trying to prove something. And Nat really dawned on me. And I went, yeah, I am. But yeah. So you feel like you were trying to prove to your father that what you were worthy? Yeah. Yeah.

I think because I didn't have this, I wasn't the same as my dad. We didn't have the same personality. I was just, I wanted, yeah, I wanted his approval, yeah. Never got it. But I love my father and he was a fantastic character and, yeah. So your father, you mentioned your father passed away. Yeah. But then you also just mentioned that you feel like you never got his approval.

Yeah. How do you reconcile those things? I don't know. Still trying to reconcile that. I haven't got to that yet. Maybe you can help. Yeah. But let's look at that.

You know, I know that with my father, who I'm privileged because he's still here with me, that I still light up when I feel like he has approved something that I've done today. I think it's what we all look for, isn't it? Approval from our parents. Yes, yes. And it sounds like you really felt like you got that from your mother. Oh, yeah. I think my mom and I have such a close relationship.

We talk every day. Yes. And like, she's just so fantastic mother. She's incredibly proud if I was to do the worst thing in the world. she'd be proud, you know. She's just a fantastic mother. And of both of her children, like, yeah.

Okay. So if you could tell your father what it was that you wanted from him, what would you say? I wouldn't ask him for anything. But God, the day where he turned around and went, like, wow, you truly, you've done that amazingly. Or wow, you're amazing. whenever I got that, oh my God, the euphoria I would feel from that. And I did have that at times.

You know, when I raced, when I was a young boy, I used to race go-karts against some of the guys that are in Formula One today and I won some races. I got that sense of pride from him. And there are other times in my life where I got it. And I think, I don't know, there was just still something I was looking to complete and that unfortunately was left unsolved. Okay.

Yeah. Maybe I think that because of the manner of his death. I don't know. And it wasn't, you know, his life wasn't completed. So my relationship with him wasn't completed. I don't know. Okay. So when he passed, it was unexpected.

As many people, when they passed, it's unexpected. But you were still quite a young. I mean, you're a young man now, but you were 21? 21, yeah. 21. Yeah. So you're 21. Where were you when you found out that he had passed?

I was at home. It was late in the night. And my mom came into my room and, yeah, told me what happened. I think I broke down as you would. But interestingly enough, after that initial breakdown, I think I buried it. and I didn't ever process those emotions and I distracted myself

and it's only been the last couple of years where I think I've really processed my father's death okay did you have obviously yeah your mother yeah did you have anyone else in your circle that you felt safe that you can go to and talk to about it interesting I've worked this out recently because of how well I think I've been dealing with my health journey.

I never spoke to anyone about. Like, we didn't speak. We didn't speak about it. We all, because it was such a shock, we didn't speak about it. And we had to process it. We tried, we didn't process it. We compartmentalized it.

And we had to distract ourselves and move on. You know, it was very raw. So we didn't, we didn't process it and we just distracted and we moved on. I don't know, maybe my family's experience was different to mine, but I know I didn't process it. It wasn't until years later that I went. You know the funniest thing is not funny. I always say that.

I use funny when it's not funny, it's interesting. I don't know why I do that. What's interesting is it wasn't until I started doing reality TV that I realized how to process my emotions. The most controversial, unlikely statement you all ever hear from a reality TV star because normally it leads to people's, doesn't help people's mental health reality TV. For me, it's helps me so much. How so?

Just that, we come from a very British not processing your emotions family. You know, don't talk about it, bury it. You know, I had a conversation with my grand the other day. And she was like, yes, best left in the past. And that's why my nan's way of dealing with things and a lot of my families way of dealing with things. But is it correct? I mean, research says, no, that's not the way you deal with things.

You have to talk about them, process them, understand them. Yes. And reality TV, whenever there was a hurdle, rather than brushing it aside, you'd learn to jump over it. And it forced those conversations. So much so that I got really good at speaking, communicating to the point where I have a fantastic relationship with my mother today, even better than it ever was.

Such a fantastic relationship with my fiancé. And because I communicate, because what reality TV did to me, it forced those conversations. I'm one of few people that will probably sit in your chair and go, reality TV is fantastic for your mental health. Actually, Sam, you're the only one is ever. ever since more about me than anyone else. I'm a weird will. Oh my gosh.

But as you describe it, I understand that. Yeah. Right? Because it does. You're forced to talk about everything. Yeah. From the juvenile to the, and also I think you're forced to be placed in these positions that are intentionally uncomfortable.

Yeah. You know, so even talking about reality TV, I think there's probably this thought that, oh, you know, Sam landed on reality TV because his aunt is one of the queens of reality TV. You think it's definitely why they asked me, right? I mean,

what do you think? Yes. I mean, I mean, yes, I hung around with people in Chelsea that were on the show. But surely the big biting point was Lisa's nephew use the name.

I mean, I'm not stupid, right? That's obvious. the reason. And, you know, yeah, I thought, I think I was just at a time in my life where I was like, they'd asked me a few times before and it never clicked or happened. Okay. Now, this is interesting. So you're saying Maiden Chelsea, they came to you before earlier and you denied them.

No, not denied them. I just didn't happen. It didn't click. I did a casting tape when I was 21. There's a very, very immature Sam out there on a casting tape for Maiden Chelsea, which I think is probably why I didn't end up on a maiden Chelsea when I was 21. There's a casting tape out there that

you know, I did and to some reason something did in the line and I didn't end up on it. And then again, a few years later I had a conversation with a casting director and again it didn't click and it wasn't until the third time where it just clicked. So I believe everything

happens for a reason. Everything has a time. I believe in fate. I'm not deeply religious. That's It's a personal thing to me, but I do believe in fate, and I believe everything happens for a reason, and hence why I've taken a lot in my stride and process things well, and I'm an optimist and so forth. So I believe it wasn't meant to happen at those times, and it was very much meant to happen at the time it happened. All right, all right.

So what about motivation? Okay. So we've had several, you know, prominent reality TV stars here on We Need to Talk, and I distinctly remember a conversation with Shakira Khan, who did very well on Love Island, and she made it clear that the only reason why she wanted to be on Love Island was to basically level up her brand and level up her career. And then I have to imagine, when I think about your aunt Lisa, is how successful she's been able to leverage reality TV. It feels like she has taken what was already a successful business and brand and just elevated elevated it to another

level on a platform that people find is very challenging to do so right a lot of people burn out quickly in reality TV so what was your motivation going into reality TV motivation? Motivation hmm I don't think when it happened there was any specific motivation interestingly enough I was like things in my life had had turned a course and I was in a bit of a situation

where what do I do next? You know I'd worked in finance I'd run businesses but I'd done that for seven years and I didn't have the passion for it anymore and I still do it in the background I still have a finance company

a currency business which you know is great but I didn't have the passion for it anymore I really didn't and I went to theatre school the same theatre school as my aunt when I was younger and I always wanted to be an actor and be

I used to I mean my brother will make you laugh he will tell a story where I used to run around the house dressed up in my dressing gown with a sword strapped to me pretending I was a character in Lord the Rings or Star Wars right and he will still make those jokes today

to try and embarrass me and I'm the one telling you here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I always wanted to do that. And I was, and this presented, this opportunity presented myself. And I went, yeah, this is what's next. This is, this, everything happens for a reason. Why not?

Yes. So it wasn't a motivation at that point. It was just, this feels right. This is the time. This seemed like it could be fun. Okay. Okay, fair. And I see the connection in, with,

the childhood actor, right, et cetera. So did you speak with your aunt? Yeah. Okay. She was always, she's, obviously she's been there. She's done it. She knows it. I need, I think she's stepped into my father's role since my father passed.

And she's been an amazing father to me, which she loves. She's my father in a wig. And she really is. They were so similar. They are so, like, their humor is identical. Their intelligence is identical. They are very similar characters. So she's filled that role.

So that approval now attaches to her. Wow, look at that. And you feel like you get it from her? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. She's amazing. She really is my second father.

And I obviously spoke to her about it. And she goes, I don't know about this. Really? Yeah. Why? Yeah. She was done American reality TV, right? And I don't think she knew too much about Maiden Chelsea at this point. Funnily enough, later it comes out, she knows people whose children have been on the show and stuff like that. And now she's investigated. She's fully behind it. And I didn't want her to fully say no. So I didn't really broach the topic again.

Okay. And then the next call I got, I'm on an event day at Maiden Chelsea. First event day I've done. I get a call for my aunt. So I run out the building or the event day. And I run down the road. And I've got my aunt, because I didn't want her to hear the background noise. Oh my goodness.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Literally. And so I answered the corner, I go, hello. And she goes, and she's talking normally, but I'm like, this is too coincidental. Well, she's obviously spoken to the mum. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

So she knows what's going on. Yes. And I'm like not going to tell her. She's like, what are you doing? And I'm like, oh, I'm just filming that reality TV show. She was like, oh, you're going ahead and doing it. And I was like, yeah, yeah, I am. She's like, okay.

So she didn't really give her sign of approval at that point. But yeah, I mean, that was, it ended up, and she ended up giving the sign of approval to later, I mean, recently when she was just over, she was even on the show. Look at that. Yeah, look at that. I know. What do you think her reluctance

was because as you said, she knows the industry very well. She's built this brand, you know. She has done it and she has done it brilliantly. There's young me going to come in and destroy the thing. I mean, I wouldn't let me do it. She thinks you're going to ruin the family name. And I think, you're too, I'm not surprised she didn't want me to. She was nervous about what I'm going to say and what I'm going to do.

Of course. And so she should be. She's not stupid. I was even thinking of that. So you were the liability. Of course. I was always the liability. Yeah.

I was always the liability. Okay, fair. I was always the liability of the family. Yeah. Yeah. I was kicked out of two schools. Were you? Yeah.

I was kicked out of the theatre school. What? Why? I mean, because I, I don't know if I can say this. I had a BB gun, a bright orange BB gun. I shot someone at school of a BB gun. I didn't realize it. It was that bad, so I got kicked out of school.

Oh, my goodness. Yeah. You know, I didn't realize that you're, do you feel like you're the black sheep of the family? Oh, 100%. Really? Yeah. I think my aunt kind of also emulates with that. Yes.

Because growing up, I think she was the black sheep. Mm-hmm. So I think that's also why we're also very alike, my aunt and I. On this note, I have a surprise for you. I will have a few surprises for you. throughout the conversation. No, no, no, no. These are all good news.

I would love for you to take a look at this, describe what is in this, and tell me how you believe you felt in that moment, okay? I'm terrified. Oh my God, where'd you get this from? All right, so what is, you have to describe it. What are you looking at there, Sam? I mean, this is me, my brother, my auntie, my uncle, my cousin,

cousins. And this is at their house in Shepton when they lived here. I mean, growing up from like the early ages, we were always there. I mean, something that they don't ever let me forget is we grew up with them, you know, we, they were all, we were always there. It was very sad when they moved country because our relationship became a little bit distant at times. So it's like I envy, for a while, I envied this photo because we were such a big close family. family. Yeah, we didn't have that anymore. And it's so nice to have that again in the last, you know, 10 years or 12 years or whatever it was. I mean, that's growing rapidly. But there was probably a good, you know, five to 10 years where we were a little bit distant. But this is, this is a great photo. This is on their badminton courts in the Cotswalt.

Love it. Yeah. They had a beautiful house. Wait, it was a beautiful house. Yeah, stunning house. I will hold on to that. I will hold on to that. Where did you get the photo? I tell you, I have many. I have many. That's like I've got that photo in a frame in my house. Did you code to my house? I think that's the level of research that we do, right? Oh, wow.

So Maiden Shalcy, if we can go to Maiden Shalcy. I came to the UK in 2018. And I originally came to do the show Slubs Go Dating. And the first person I met, the first person, was Chloe Sims, who had just come from Towie. The only way is Essex. And she then tried to describe to me the show, right? The reality show.

The reality show. And she described it. She says it's kind of like Maiden Chelsea. But we're different. I mean, we try and pivot away from the, are we? I love something. I mean, I can say this because my whole of my mom's family are from Essex. So, yeah, I mean, I can say it.

But, you know, being on, I mean, and I'm not from Chelsea. This is the funniest part. And a lot of people aren't, but I live in Chelsea. But, yeah, I wouldn't associate us to Taui. Okay, you wouldn't associate. You would do the association. Similar premise of the, you know, talking about the social lives of people in those areas. But very different people.

Very different. So I was going to say, how would you characterize the difference? because now that I've lived here for quite some time, I think I can see there's a difference. How would you characterize the first? Can I ask you that question first? Absolutely. You sound entirely different.

Right. That was a good response. How do I rephrase that? Yeah, just different areas of London, getting up to different things. Yes. One area of a bit more decorum. I want to ask which one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you decide which one's it.

Oh, my gosh. But I will say is that, you know, with a, I have a lot of friends from Maiden Chelsea, a lot of friends. And I always think that when the Maiden Chelsea group, if you will, land on Slubs Go Dating, because inevitably we always have one of you on Slubes Go Dating is I'm always impressed with how astute that person is. not just astute just generally in the world but with regard to TV and I feel like it is a very it must be a challenging environment

and the reason why I say it must be a challenging environment is because whenever I'm looking I'm doing my research because I'm doing my research I'm not just watching me I love the way you justify what you made in Chelsea I'm doing my research when I'm doing my research what I've noticed is that there is a lot of

contention and you are forced to have to debate forced to have to defend your position and you have to do it quickly yeah right now we had Tristan this is this is your BFF right we've we had we we had we we don't give us anything

we we we had Tristan on um when I watch his scenes and obviously I've watched his scenes with you. There seems to be contention. Really? You thought that? I got that.

And that's the word. That's the plight word that I would use as contention. But as a viewer, I think the question is, is how authentic is it? Oh, that is authentic. We don't like each other, yeah. Truly. The funny thing was before the TV show, we got on. You know, that that is the funny part about it.

But when we did the TV show, I believe I saw a different side of him that I didn't like. And I didn't like that side of him. I think outside the show, nice guy. I'm not going to, yeah, we didn't get on on the show. There was contention and that is authentic. All right. So do you feel as if as you show this is the genuine you? This is you.

Yes. Yeah. But not everyone. Okay. So how do you deal with that? Oh, that is really tricky, yeah. It's something you will have an internal debate and an external debate outside of the show with people all the time about. Are you being real? Are you being serious? That is a very hard battle, minefield to navigate. Because you've got some people being authentic. there's some people who aren't yeah it's very hard to know if what you're getting is the real them

are people doing things to get more time on TV have they been pushed into saying something because they've spoken to a producer and the producer is very smart you know all of these things are a factor that's why it becomes very very funny

when people who aren't involved in the show, watch a two minutes scene, and they make very strong comments, such strong comments. And it's literally two minutes out of a two-hour conversation and there's so much more context. Yeah, that's a really hard battle to navigate.

How do you handle the commentary? Because you're right. The commentary is you have people who are casual watchers. You have people who maybe don't even watch the show but watch the social clips. Yeah. and automatically have a very strong opinion on you. How do you manage that?

For me, the commentary doesn't affect me that much. I see it. I read it. If anything, I find it funny. And I think, you know, when someone says something negative, it's clickbait. And it makes me laugh in the sense of, firstly, if you're the... Let's remember. There is nearly a million people that probably watch Maiden Chelsea, right?

Her episode. Yes. The amount of people that are actually commenting are like a few hundred people. So you're talking 1%, right? So you've got to think about the 1% which are commenting. And then you've got to think about the split between negative and positive. So now you're less than 0.5% of people commenting negative things, right? And you've got to think about the type of person that needs to go on social media and make that comment.

And then you realize it doesn't bother you. And if anything, them commenting feeds the clip that you're in, which feeds the popularity of that clip, feeds the popularity of the show, which pays your wage. So then you really start laughing. And that's why you have so many people on social media that do the clickbait and they enjoy it because they are making money out of it.

Look at that. Look at that. You know, I was, I just found out that, that there is a school in the United States that teaches you how to be not just a reality TV star. Wow. But how to be a... I wish I'd say on that. Maybe your aunt can send you to that school, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Although I think you're doing quite well. But it teaches you not just to be any reality TV star, but to be a villain. Jesus Christ. Right, to be a villain, you know? That's absurd to me. I mean, that's amazing.

That's the world we are. That's the world. That is it. That is it. So now you have already said that reality TV has been great, in essence, for your mental health. Yeah. Interestingly enough. Yeah.

Which is so wild. I can't even say it. It's like, you said it. But you said, you said 100%. It has. Has it been great for your relationships? I mean, that's an interesting question because when I first, I've not really experienced that too much. I've only been on reality TV for a couple years.

And when I first joined it, I wasn't in a relationship. I was just having fun. And the relationship I'm in now hasn't been affected by it because we, Alice and I, who, we got together and we are so, so strong. and we got together before the show started filming. And by the time we were filming, we were incredibly strong. So it was, it just, it never affected us. And we were so strong as a unit,

we never let the TV show get in the middle of us. Okay. And to the point where we just went from strength to strength to strength. You know, got engaged. We're having a baby. There's nothing that could get in between that. Yes. Yeah.

All right. So you just mentioned, Alice, who is your, fiancee, okay, which one, congratulations. Thank you. On this. She is pregnant. Yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. On this.

You mentioned something that is near and dear to my heart, and I have lived experience with, and that is, so you have a relationship, you're on TV. When I started way back in the day, I started when you were a baby, 2012 in the United States. Isn't that young? I was 15. See, look at that. Look at that, look at that. Well, I was only 16.

Yeah. No, but I distinctly remember my wife and I, we were offered a television show to basically chronicle our life. And my wife said, no, let's not do this. A, she said, you know, we're too boring. But B, we can't believe that. Oh my goodness. But B, she said, this could destroy our relationship.

because of the pressure that's applied. Yeah. So truly, how does this industry impact your relationship with Alice? I mean, I would disagree with your wife's opinion because from my experience, I believe if you're strong, it would only get in the, it would only destroy you if you were weak to start. So I believe reality TV only enhances. the actual situation. Okay.

So for us, it makes us look strong as, because we are strong. So it makes us look even stronger than what we are. And people blame, oh, it was, you know, the TV, it was this, it ruined my relationship. No, no, no, no. Your relationship was weak and the show enhanced that, exaggerated that, put a magnifying glass on that weak relationship and showed the cracks and that's when it collapsed. Are interesting. So you're almost arguing that it has made your reality TV is made,

your relationship stronger with Alice. I think so too. Yeah, yeah, 100%. So on that note, I have another surprise for you. You ready for this? I don't know. I'm doing this quietly because you're actually next door right now, and I don't want you to hear what I'm saying.

But Sam, I don't think there's really words that could articulate fully what you mean to me. To me, you are home, your safety, your strength. You're literally the light in it. any room that you walk into. You always support me. You always give me the best advice with no hesitation. You always know exactly what I'm thinking and feeling without me even having to say. You always put other people above yourself, even when other people couldn't even imagine being in a situation like you're in right now. You're the epitome of positivity. You really, really are. You make all of us so, so proud and you inspire everyone whose life you're in.

I remember meeting you and seeing you with babies and other children and just knowing straight away that you would be the best dad ever seeing your magnetism and the connection that you have with children and your beliefs and who you truly are it's been amazing to see and I honestly I just can't wait to see it all unfold with our own child now we all love you so much oh god is going to make me tear up

That's amazing. That's very sweet. That... I knew she was filming something the other day. You knew it. She was like, don't ruin it. I was like, ruin what? Yeah.

I think, yeah. What does Alice's love to you mean? I've never had a relationship where I look at the person like I look at Alice. there's infatuation and love and, you know, all of that. But I've never had something where I look beyond that and I look at her and I go, I love your personality to a T. And I find that really, really interesting.

I've never had that before. And that's when I realized, I mean, I knew this from the beginning and that's why I knew I was going to marry her. Yeah. It was so much deeper than to want to rip your clothes off, which is always there. Yes, yes. Would you say that she's the first person romantically that you felt safe with? Yeah.

Yeah. I don't, I don't, yeah, 100%. I don't have any anxiety. I don't have any. I trust her implicitly. I feel secure. Yeah. One billion percent.

Yeah, I've never had it before. And I don't think I've got to have that with any other person. All right, so what's going on? Surprise! Oh my gosh, those are aura frames. Yeah. Our new sponsor. Yeah.

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lotion. It's clinically shown to visibly plump and boost skin hydration by 50%, leaving your skin looking hydrated and more youthful. Turn up beautiful skin with Gold Bond's new plumping collagen body and face serum lotion. Learn more on Amazon. So you two are about to have a child.

Yeah. All right. What type of father do you want to be? I want to be a best friend but also that parental guidance. Yeah.

I want to be. be the protector. There's a few things in my head that scream out of what I want to show to my child and that is, you know, family is everything. Love is everything. You know, happiness and being happy is everything. You know, for many years, I didn't realize that. And I think it's about teaching my child about my mistakes. So he doesn't have to bear those same mistakes, you know, chasing the city things. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. Being comfortable as you are doing things you want to do. Yeah. I love it. I love it. I love it. So now you are in this arguably incredible inflection point in life, right? You can look at it from this side and say, wow, my gosh, he's engaged to this.

this incredible woman who loves him and he loves her. They have a baby on the way, right? Life is great. But you can also argue your life is not so high. Life is pretty shit at times, isn't it? Yes. You know, it's funny you say that everything was perfect and then bam, smash your hip via freight train, you know?

Yes. It blows up in your face. Life was on that perfect route. And, you know, life is always going to throw you lemons and you've got to make lemonade. It's never going to be. Everything is relative. Everyone out there has got to get over their hurdles. And, yeah, I mean, yes, there are elements of my life which are going perfectly.

And then there's other elements which are shit. Let's tell everyone. But let's let's talk about this health conditions. that you're facing because when I as a father, as a husband, when I think about what you are going through, I can't fathom it to the point where there was high interest for me to sit down with you because I truly want to understand how you are feeling in this moment with everything you're dealing

with. So just to describe, what is it that you're dealing with? I'll take you from the beginning. I was diagnosed at the age of four with a liver disease, congenital, hepatic fibrosis. My mum spotted it because when I was four years of age, I was a very poorly baby, actually. I was born eight weeks early. I had a collapsed lung. I was in an incubator. I died twice. In the incubator? I think, yeah, I had a collapsed lung. They put a tube into me. I mean, I, like, flatlined, I think, twice.

Like, once or twice. You know, I was very poorly. And in a few weeks later, sent out into the world healthy. We thought I was healthy. So they dealt with a very, you know, it must have been very hard for my mom, my father, my whole family, my grandmother, everyone. But that was fine. You know, they dealt with it. you know, I was fine. Four years of age,

my mom looks at me in a swimming pool and she goes, Sam's figure doesn't look right. And because I'm not, I wasn't a, you know, a chubby baby or a chubby child, I had very skinny arms, but I had this extended belly. But it wasn't, it wasn't like, there was no fact, it was like I was pregnant. Okay. And my mum couldn't get over it in her head, so she took me to the hospital.

And she says, I mean, obviously, I don't remember any of this as four. They ran frantically all over the place because they did some tests. And at first they thought, I had cystic fibrosis. Okay. Which is, I believe, fibrosis on the lungs. They did their series of testing, a biopsy skin. I've still got the scar here today. Huge scar.

It must have been a big, big. Goodness. Of skin they took. A series of testing and they diagnosed me of liver, congenital, hepatic fibrosis. And they very much at that age said, okay, Sam's got this liver disease. From what we know now, his liver function is fine, but one day he may need a liver transplant. So we knew about this from the age of four. Okay.

But then over the next year, and they said, you know, Sam's got to be careful, can't be punched in the liver. Not that I would, you know, no everyone goes and gets punched in the liver, but you've got to be careful. I couldn't do rugby or stuff like that. And I was seen every, quite regularly in the hospital.

At the Royal Free, Great Ormond Street Hospital. But as I got older, and my experience that I will tell you, I had this conversation with my mum recently, is very different to her experience. But I'll tell you my experience. So as I've grown up,

I've known I've had this disease, And I, but I didn't pay it much attention because I was always told to live my life normally. So from four to the age of 27, I would go every three months to the hospital. And that would be spaced out to every six months to every year. Every single appointment, they would do bloods urine. Your liver functions fantastic. So at age of four, I might need a liver transplant at 16. We're now 27.

Absolutely fine. We don't need to see you till next year. Well, nothing's going to happen at this rate. You kind of start to think, not you're invincible. You don't and, you know, but you think it was, this wasn't going to ever affect me. Yes. And then last year, very weirdly, never been hit by anything. I thought I got the flu, had a little bit of an asthma, I've always had asthma.

And I started to get really, um, Couldn't get better. I couldn't get better. And I had this really bad back pain. So I was seeing the GP, went into A&E a few times. I had my asthma under control from A&E admissions. But I couldn't get rid of this back pain. And I always felt like I had the flu.

And this persisted for another two weeks. And we were getting close to Christmas. We weren't doing any of the Christmas things that we wanted to do, Alice and I. Why? Because you were just poorly. It's not well. Just poorly. Didn't go. We love to go to Winter Wonderland like maybe every other day. We went once. And I really wanted to do my Christmas shopping. So I really got myself out of bed because I was so excited to get my friends and my fiancé, now fiancé at the time, she was only my girlfriend.

I was excited to get everyone's presents. So I was like, we're going shopping. We're going to Harrods. Of course we're going to hear it. Yeah. And I was extremely thirsty. I had a litre bottle of water. And I drunk the whole thing in an hour. I was so dehydrated. I thought I was so dehydrated.

I went to Alice. I can't quench my first. After being there for an hour, I went, I was sitting down, I was doing a friend's engagement presents. I was sitting down and I was going, and I had more to do more shopping and I went to Alice. I can't do this. I feel too ill.

I feel like really fluid. I need to go home. For the next two days, I basically laid in bed. Alice thought I was taking too much codeine for the back pain. I wasn't. I was taking normal amounts. But the symptoms I was posing were that of delirium, dehydration. Now you look back on it.

I was a little bit jaundice. I was a little bit crusty lips. And you don't put two and two together because you've never experienced anything. anything like that. So you couldn't, you didn't recognise the signs. That's why I'm such a massive advocate for the sepsis signs today. Okay. We didn't recognize the signs. We didn't know what those signs was. What was happening, we've got, well, on the Monday, I was meant to be flying to Dubai for work. And Alice came back from her work and I was still in bed, hadn't moved. She went, something's wrong. She spoke to my mum. It got me into A&E. When I got

into A&E, they went, yeah, you're, you're not well, are you? So they were like, they were Like, they couldn't understand it first. I did my blood. And the doctor came back and he went, you're not, you're not well, are you, Sam? And I went, no, I really don't feel well. There's something wrong in my body. You went, yeah, you're going into organ failure.

My CRP was up in the 400s. Okay. And CRP is that, what? Protein. Almost tests, I think, inflammation. Yeah. Yeah, in your body. Yeah.

And it shows. So normally your normal level should be below three milligrams. Okay. You know, zero to 100. There's a mild infection, 100 to 200 serious infection get to A&E. Mom was in the 400th. Wow. Like, basically borderline that the next step from that is basically you're dead.

Right. That infection rate is, they were. The doctor was white in the face from seeing that infection rate. How close do you believe you were to dying in that moment? I mean, so we don't think at that point. We really knew. It wasn't until I came out of hospital a week or two weeks, three weeks later, where I spoke to one of the doctors who had seen me

and she went, look, we were obviously weren't going to say to you at the time and I laugh from, I don't know, trauma properly, but we didn't know if you were going to make it. You know, you were touch and go. You came to us and we were like, who, 50-50.

Yeah, that was a big shock to hear from one of the doctors when we heard that, that made just, like, major stomach sink. Absolutely. And this was, Sepsis.

Yeah. So due to my condition, so this is all later found with later testing and everything, the journey for the last year, was what had happened is with my liver disease when your liver starts. So I have fibrosis of my liver. So basically imagine a liver, a nice, smooth organ. Mine's very bumpy. And those bumps are the fibrosis and your billyry tree is where the bile passes through your liver. and the bumps have started constricting that billory tree, stopping the bowel from moving.

When the bowel can't move, it sits, and bacteria can gather and start an infection. So what had happened is, obviously, my disease has progressed over so many years, but now to a point where that bacteria can build and I can get these infections, and we didn't recognise I had an infection, and because we didn't recognize,

that infection became safe, Septic. Okay. Now, sepsis is any infection that gets out of control. Interesting. Okay. Any infection. Blood poisoning. You know, so there's common misconceptions, but any infection in your body that gets out of control is sepsis. All right. And when it gets out of control, what is it, is it that your, your, your, your body's basically attacking itself? Well, it starts, all the infection starts spreading into all the other part of your body. Mm. You know, so. It runs rapid. What I didn't. It starts to shut down. your organs. I was so ignorant to what sepsis was and I think this is in part yeah what's what's beautiful about what you're doing is you're helping to destroy ignorance right I started

looking at sepsis you know with with you coming in and these are these are some stats that I didn't realize and and some of these are dark so yeah one is in the UK five people die every hour from sepsis. The Sepsis Trust estimates about 48,000 people die each year from sepsis-related illnesses. However, thousands are

preventable. I didn't know this. Just by recognizing the signs. So like me, I mean, now I look back on it, and I've had infection since and never got to that stage, because you look back on it, if you've got a temperature, if you've got a fever, if you've got

If you're dehydrated, if you've got extreme pains, these are like, I mean, I know it's funny, but these are, you think, when I say them like that, it's like, oh yeah, that's obvious signs to get into hospital. But when they're happening and then they progress quickly, you don't recognize them. So clearly, as the stats say, people don't recognize them. And sometimes it's not all of them. Sometimes it can just be one of them. So it's about understanding what those signs are. and if you have any, get into the A&E.

Okay. Call it out. Okay. Make sure it's not. So the core... Ask the question that could be sex. It could be fair. So the core signs from your experience were, just for us to unpack it?

Fever. Temperature. Delirium and dehydration. Dehydration. I got to a stage where I was quite bad, so I was experiencing all the signs. Okay. Yeah. Now I know.

and testament to this, now I know those signs every time I've had a reinfection since. I've got straight into A&E, I've got on antibiotics, and I've been fine, I've been out within a few days. So now I understand the signs. I don't think I'll ever become septic again, and I don't think I'll ever have a fear. Touch would, wherever it may be,

that I would ever, you know, be in that position again because I understand the signs. All right. So it's about understanding them. Fair. This is very important. Very important. Extremely.

The, was it the sepsis that then required your need for a liver transplant? No. This is something else. It's what it was, the sepsis came from my liver disease. So the infection came from my liver disease, which came out of control, which became septic. But the core problem was my liver disease, which is why I need a liver transplant. It's scary how quickly those things change. you know from one minute thinking you know November last year to November this year and that change

and going from all that's happened in that year I mean and and only a few months ago I mean literally receiving being referred to a new doctor and receiving a letter well notification app on the NHS app saying we're sending you for liver transplant assessment Ah Yeah Can we go back to that Because from what I understand Is this is literally what

Three months ago Maybe or less Yeah Two months ago You know there's Something interesting that's just dawned on me You know how you remember dates Yes

Don't remember the date And you know what's interesting I never remembered my dad's passing date Because I blocked it out And it's only the last few years I now remember my dad's passing date And now I don't remember this date, is it because it's trauma? Just something that dawned on me there.

I don't remember the date. Could have been eight weeks ago, 10 weeks ago, 12 weeks ago. I think you kind of, when you have that trauma, block it out, right? You do. So somewhere two or three months ago in that vicinity, yes, I get this notification on the NHS app. Alice is at work. I'm home alone. And I go, oh, it's a letter from King's College.

I get a letter after every appointment, open it up, and it's literally a four-line letter, and it goes, Dear Sam, after reviewing your latest CT scan, these are in line with your condition. We're sending you for liver transplant assessment.

I mean, that, was, yeah, receiving that, I think your heart, your heart stops, your tummy drops. Yeah. In that moment, when you,

if we can go back and revisit that, moment you're describing emotively what's happening what are you thinking in that moment yeah fear of what am i going to die yeah you're engaged you know that you are a father to be how does that impact your thoughts i always get sad when i think my dad's never going to see his grandchild to now start having that thing dawn and you am i going to see my child that's terrible this is the part of sam that i can't i can't fathom you know i can't especially knowing the history that you had with your father yeah and knowing the type of father that you want to be you know to have to fight that emotion and fight that feeling.

I just can't. And this is also why I'm so proud that you are talking about this. I mean, you're using your moments in your time to educate us, which truly should be applauded. Yeah. I mean, I had a breakdown. I think it was a couple weeks ago because you process, you know, I decided to talk about this for these reasons on reality TV.

I went, I'm going to do my thing and raise the awareness. It's just what you should do. And I don't think I anticipated, you know, you talk about it on Maiden Chelsea. Maiden Chelsea is fairly big, fine. And there is always a bit of media around it. And so I was expecting to do it on Maiden Chelsea, be a bit of media and that would be it. And I really did expect that.

so to what ensued was the fact eight weeks later was I'd processed it or compartmentalised it for now dealt with it and this media storm we talked about earlier hit and I and the media storm that hit wasn't the context of look yes those fears hit me

but they're deep fears. And in all truth, a liver transplant is extremely successful. So I'm going to be here for my son. I know that. And there are those fears, but the context is, I'm healthy now. I'm going to be there for my son. I'm going to have this liver transplant, and everything's going to be fine, right? So I dealt with that.

I'd process that. And then the media storm, and Maiden Chelsea portrayed that brilliantly. The media storm, which followed, every newspaper comes out with the headline four or five years left to live. That's not true. And that broke me.

Those newspapers didn't give a fuck about me. They cared about selling their newspapers and they didn't think about the wider context. They cared about getting their headline and selling their newspapers. the context is my liver might not be good of four or five years. He doesn't know the doctor, but rather than waiting for that, rather than waiting for my liver to get bad,

I'll have a transplant, I'll remain healthy, I will see my son, I will live in a long, happy life. And the media didn't do that. And so they didn't portray it like that. They didn't give the contacts. They thought about selling their newspapers, and then you suddenly sit there and your mum's a little bit broken. to hear it in my mum's voice

because she thought she heard it in my, my voice. And you go, why am I doing this? Why did I just say I'd talk? I've done, I've, I've fudged up here. I shouldn't have talked about it. I should have kept it private. She'd have dealt with it internally, with our family, processed it ourselves.

And I broke. And I sat there and I broke and I sat there with Alice. And we just, we just took 20 minutes to cry. And I think, I spoke to my aunt and she kind of gave me a kick up the backside. She was like, you need to be there for Alice. You need to be there for your son. You know, yes, I understand what you're going through

and she was fantastic, empathizing with me, but she gave me to kick up the backside. And then it propelled me into thinking, this is why I'm doing this. I'm doing this to raise awareness. There are 8,000 other people out there on a transplant list that are waiting for transplants that would wish to have the voice that I had,

the platform I have to talk about this, to encourage people to sign up, to reduce that list so they can get well soon. Yes. Yes. Okay. There's so many things that you've just said that. Yeah, I know. But also, no, no, you know what's beautiful, what I didn't know.

I didn't know coming in. And this is so interesting. I'm so glad that you said it, is that in doing the research, you're right. The overwhelming number of articles out about you is that you have a limited time to live. I started to believe it. It's not true. But also family and friends. I'm not going to cry.

I spoke about this with Alice on the way here. Because obviously you tell people when you see them. It's a big thing to tell people. So you only tell your close family like immediately, right? You're like your immediate family. And then they tell your wider family. And it kind of people find out that way organically. This way, all the people you haven't had a chance to speak to yet find out, you know, and these are cousins, people I'm close to, that find out for a news article.

So you have the news articles with all these headlines, and then you have family and friends messaging you like, oh my, like, I'm so sorry to hear. Like basically they're about to say, I'm so sorry, you're going to die. And it's like And now I'm at the point where do I have to like explain to everyone that No no no this is the wider context The thousands of DMs of people that messaging It's a

It's very hard to navigate But I remain solidified that I've done the right thing For the awareness Yes Yes And I'm using that And there are There are yeah

And there are literally If everyone signed up So we have an opt-out system in the UK for organ donation. So everyone automatically thinks, oh, my organs would be donated. Actually, what happens is 1% of deaths are likely for you to be able to give your organs. Because obviously, a lot of deaths aren't,

your organs won't be viable for transplant. Okay, well, I did not know this. Only 1% of deaths. Only 1% of deaths are viable for organ donation. Yeah. Okay. So what that means, and this is, those circumstances of those deaths are usually ones of surprise.

So they haven't had those conversations. So yes, we're an opt-out system, but what happens, imagine, this is quite crass, I'm going to give you the imaginary situation. Imagine a young lad has been hit by a car. His organs are fine. That fact, we've got an opt-out system. Transplant coordinators come to speak to the family. The family go, okay, so there's an opt-out system, so yes, we can.

but the family can still opt out. And 50% of the time they do because they don't know the intentions or the wishes of their children. Oh, okay. So 50% of the time, those organs aren't donated. Now, if everyone confirms their decision

of what they want, then that increases to 90%. And that's why there's a necessity to confirm your decision. And that's what I'm trying to raise awareness for. I see. And the really, really hard-hitting fact, right? Did you know you're two to three times more likely to need an organ

than you are likely to be able to give an organ? Oh, no. So there is more chance, and I'm sorry to be crass here with your family. Sure. There's more chance that someone in your family would need an organ than any of you would be likely to ever give an organ. Which shows the importance of... Yeah, and then there's the big ethical debate.

If you're willing to take an organ from someone, surely you should be willing to give your organs. Yes. It's an extremely complex issue. All I'm advocating for is if you know you want to give your organs, just confirm your decision. Because 50% of the time, if you did die in a manner where your organs would be viable, your family wouldn't donate it. So go confirm your decision and make sure that they know what that is. Have that conversation with them, but also confirm it online.

So there is, you know, it's already been done. It takes the pressure off them. What their wishes are. So looking at organ donation to is this is just mind-blowing. If you look at the numbers, over 8,000 people in the UK are currently waiting for an organ transplant. 650 people in the UK are currently waiting for a liver transplant. And in 2022 to 2023, almost 500 people died simply by waiting on the transplant list, which, to your point, underscores the...

importance of this because those organs were available. Like I literally just shivered all over the hair standing up on my legs. Yeah. It's it's just it's just one of those where it is a I mean that's 500 unnecessary deaths. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So then currently you are on a waiting list. I'm being sent for a liver transplant assessment. There's another dilemma to the whole before you go on the list, they have to make sure you're going to survive the surgery effectively. Less big of a deal for me, you know, I'm a fit. I like to believe I'm fit and healthy and young and, you know, whatever.

There's obviously a lot of other people that are a little bit elderly, pre-existing other conditions which can implicate things. So it makes it harder for them to survive the surgery. So those numbers you said it doesn't even take into account all of those people that actually need to transplant this but don't even get on to the waiting list. Wow. So physically you have to be at a certain level. 12 hour surgery. It's a 12 hour surgery.

Is it 12 hour surgery? Liver transplant, yeah. Wow. So kidneys are amazing, right? They transplant them like through keyhole surgery. We're so advanced on liver kidney. But liver, slightly more tricky. And obviously as you go up the vital organs, it gets even tricky.

you know, heart and lung being a very, very, I mean, I think we did the world's first double lung transplant the other day. Okay. Yeah. Amazing. I mean, it's fantastic. Yeah. If you look at the advances of medical technology, it's just, it's a blessing to be alive, you know,

in this day and age. You've hit on something really, really important. And this is why I'm an optimist. This is why I'm a positive person. And I don't go what I did for one day go, why me? Why does it happen to me when I had my breakdown? But I go, how lucky am I that I'm living in this time frame? If I was born in my granddad or before, I wouldn't be so lucky.

I wouldn't make it past my mid-30s. You know? So I'm lucky. I'm lucky to be born in this time frame where we're able to do a liver transplant nearly every day we do one. Okay. Every day we're doing a liver transplant. I mean, how amazing is that? Yes.

And then also the fact that you're going to receive a liver from someone who wanted. Yeah. You know? Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, that's beautiful. Yeah.

I mean, yeah. I mean, I hope I had a really good friend, a guy named Daniel Werb. unfortunately a couple years ago he passed away from a brain aneurysm and the way I describe him was the kindest man you'll ever meet much like yourself you have that nice genuine aura to you

and quite like him just a very kind person and he had that conversation with his family a month before and said if I was to pass away why would I give my organs to someone who needs I don't need them anymore and he said this to his family so when that time came he saved

four people's lives his sister reached out to me recently and spoke to me and she said thank you for raising awareness on your story because it made me realize how important it is to keep speaking about Daniel's story and that really touched me I mean that's humanity at its best right I mean I've received thousands of messages it's obviously there's a big thing about you with livers you can do live transplants and there is, it shows humanity at its finest. I have not seen one negative message, you know,

thousands of these messages and I sometimes see some of them pop up and you know, there are so many, I wish I could reply to them all, but I mean I would spend all day on social media replying to messages. And there are people who are offering to do the live

transplant to give half their livers. And I think that is humanity it's finest. Think about, I mean, think about that. Yeah. Isn't that, you know, we talk so much about how terrible society is. Yeah. But then here you have all of these people who probably have never met you.

Yeah. Willing to give up half their liver for you. Yeah. I mean, you'll sit here with me and you'll see that I talk about everything in a positive light and you'll see that Alice, you know, what she says about me in that video, I'm such a positive person. So I see everything for the better I see people for the better and I see all the optimism I'm and that's all I all I talk about I talk about the goodness you know I think strive to be in

the light away from the dark absolutely now do you know where I think you might get this from it's another surprise I have for you that surprise I don't know if I could deal of more surprises all day all day so so what I want you to do here is I want to I want you to read this letter out loud for us. Okay? I just saw the last word and it's about, Sam, I hope this is okay to say I'm proud of Sam. I hope this is okay to say I'm proud of Sam as an understatement.

From his original diagnosis of genetic liver disease aged four, he has carried on living his life to the full. Some of our fondest memories of him staying with us, when he had to play either cards or drafts constantly. I think Sam's highlight was when aged six, he helped cover the swimming pool in our garden in preparation for a marquee to be erected for a family wedding. There are so many memories of a big personality

that I'm so happy to call my grandson. I don't know why that's got me more than anything. You know, as beautiful as she and it was so proud. The thing that you, you know? I don't know why. That way. You know so much more than the rest. Ah, dear.

Yeah. Fucking hell. Hmm. Oh. I think it's because I was, I even called her last night. And I don't know if it's my grandfather or my grandmother this has come from. Grandmother. Grandmother.

I called her last night. And I think I'm, because her personality is not to talk about things openly, especially in, this format I was worried about her and if she was worried about me to talking openly like this that means a lot to me yeah

I tell you shows you shows you how proud she is the fact that she would contribute that letter yeah yeah yeah you're loved you were you were loved profoundly and I think this is so beautiful for you because

I didn't know this when we sat down, but I could see that, you know, you saw that you had love as a child, but oftentimes we want a little bit more. Yeah. Right? We really want to feel that we are special and we are extraordinary,

and maybe you didn't always feel that way. But I feel that you have surrounded yourself with people who make you feel that way today. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you really do. You really do. Right now, over 8,000 people across the UK are living each day in uncertainty, waiting for a call to say, we found a match, a story I'm all too familiar with.

In the time it takes to listen to this message, you could be the reason someone like Sam's story changes. You have the potential to save, not just one, but up to nine lives just by registering as an organ donor. It's simple, takes only two minutes, and it's entirely your choice. You decide what you want to give. Most of us would accept an organ if we needed one, and right now most of us are more likely to need a transplant in our lifetime than to be a donor. That's why we've partnered with NHS organ donation. By confirming your decision on the NHS organ donation registration page,

it becomes more likely that the decision will be honored when you're not here. So whatever your decision, record it, And tell your loved ones too. It could make all the difference. If my story moved you, know that thousands of people share that same story. So don't just feel something, do something. Head to organ donation.nash.n.hs.org.com. Or click the link in the description now. It only takes two minutes.

What I didn't realize, and you just mentioned this, this thing with me is it's a 12-hour surgery. Yeah. This is a serious surgery. Yeah. Once you receive the liver, then, and I've seen statistics, what is the survival rates with the liver? I mean, so this is the interesting part.

These are the averages and this is what's scary. 95% survival rate on the surgery. And then those percentages drastically start to come down as the years go on. Your mortality rate shrinks. So a thing which looks like I will need because you don't probably liver doesn't typically survive 60 or 70 years, you know, to a normal life expectancy, you know, if I was to make it to 80s. So, yeah, mortality rates drastically come down and by 25 years it's 50-50. It's 50-50. I think the context of that, though, and something I've learned lately is your average transplantee is a lot older than me.

And I think they drag that mortality rate down. Okay, fair. But there is, I'm, it's extremely likely I will need a re-transplantation if medicine was to stay the way it is. Okay. That's, I believe. I mean, but it's, it's quite an unknown. You know, what we have started to realize we're going through this journey is everything is different. Every case is different because, you know, yes, they do a liver transplant every day, but.

when you consider like actually percentage-wise, how many liver transplant that is to the global population, yes. You realize how minute that is. And every case is so different. You know, some people take to their liver and have gone on to 40 years. Some people reject their liver. It is, there is so, it's just such an unknown.

Because that's, I think, the scary part. Which is fair, which is fair, the unknown. But then there's also this abundance of information that we have now. And in doing this research for you, a term that I had never heard before, which totally makes sense, is health anxiety.

Right? And when I look at this as health anxiety is the intense worry about one's health, usually to the point that it produces significant distress or interferes with day-to-day life. And here's the stat. Up to 20% of medical patients in the UK

have experienced significant health anxiety. and it's due to the rising ability to find more medical information online. Interesting. So is health anxiety something that you believe you have experienced? Oh, yeah. I mean, since I got sepsis, all your, I mean, when you nearly, yeah, when you nearly die, that's all you worry about is this is going to happen again. Yes.

Yeah. And then is it this researching of information and? It's the worst. It's the worst. Yeah, keep away from that research. Because your, I mean, your research is rubbish compared to what the doctors know. If you need to know something, ask your doctors. Why, I mean, the idea that we Google symptoms is redonculus.

I use that word. I get it, I get it, though. I get it. Yeah. I mean, it's the most silly thing we do, I think. You know, we Google our symptoms. We Google things. Because, yeah.

If you need to know, speak to your doctor, and I think there should be a ban on the internet from finding out medical information. Because there's also a variety of in-act sources which are not right, you know? Yeah. So in your management of this, though, and in me now understanding health anxiety, which I didn't realize was a thing, but now I understand how prevalent it is, I can see many people in my life who I believe suffer. none of us can be in your shoes

or to your point now is the shoes of those loved ones are around you because you said something that I want to come back to I think this is a great time to come back to it and that is you said you started talking about liver disease and you said this was my experience

but not my mothers yeah I mean something which I dawned upon recently. And that's, so those around those having a medical challenge, health concern, right, experience things differently. Yeah. How did your mother experience it?

Well, so I described this situation to her, as I describe it to you now, of the liver disease never impacting me. It's never been a thing up until the age of 27 and then all of a sudden I'm, bam, I'm ill. She goes, she like looks at me funny, like, that's not true. You were really poor poorly as a baby. You know, you died like once as a baby. And your whole life, we've been going to hospital. Yes.

And I've been a mother through all of that. And I was like, wow, you really, and then I, it dawned upon me. I was like, you've had such a different experience of this to me. So she's able to cope today, I think, a lot better than I am. Because she's dealt with it her whole life. Yes. Where I haven't. I have, you know, and testament to my parents to make me believe that I was,

I wasn't affected, you know, in the sense I could live my life to my fullest. It was never on my mind. So I had a fantastic childhood. Never even thought about it. Yes. But her journey of that is so very different. And I find that very interesting. Yeah.

I tell you, from her parents. Yeah. To a soon-to-be parent. Yeah. I'll tell you, perhaps the biggest challenge. And that is feeling your child's emotion, but not fusing with it. Very important, very challenging. You know where I'm going with this.

Is this? Because my mom wasn't getting upset recently to the point. where I would like I would show her something and I couldn't see her bray. This is messed up right. But I kind of not wanted her to see her brave. But like, I'm like, are you feeling what I'm feeling kind of thing? Like, why aren't you breaking down? And I think it was to the point where I think I broke my mum down.

And then I went, that's why you haven't broken down because it made me feel worse. Yes. She's reached supreme level parenting. Yeah. You know? And I'm trying to get to that place. But what ends up happening, I think, just naturally when you have this unconditional love for your child is this protection mode. Protection.

And you know that if they are sad, you become sad. Yeah. It's to the point literally where the happiness of my... And I think it's instinctive, right? It is. Yeah. It is. The happiness of my day is based on.

how happy my two children are. I would say that's the same for my mom, yeah. Yeah. But it shouldn't be that way, right? And the reason why is to where your mom is, right, I think now, is this whole notion of if you can have what's called Boundaryed Empathy, which is close enough so that you don't get a meshed, you don't get burned by it, but not too far where you're aloof or you're too distant. You have to be just in that right zone.

zone and I'm trying to get to that place and I know that when you when you see your child you will fuse there is just something that takes over something I've learned recently which is a mother bonds with their child obviously from you know when they're growing it inside them right but the dad is the the fusing is at the first touch or and even And some say even later than the first touch, it takes a while for a dad to bond and get that. Yeah. I think, you know what? It all depends because with my boys, my wife was ill.

And so immediately I had to, I was, you know, I was right there, you know, with them. And for me, it was, it could have been first touch or sight, but it was this immediate, I can't describe it. Yeah. It was this immediate, we are one. Yeah. And it's, I've never been able to relinquish that, you know, to the point where there was, yesterday, there was, a, it was an alarm went off in my son's school. He shouldn't have his phone.

So hopefully I don't get him into too much. He shouldn't have his phone. But he had his phone. And the teacher misinterpreted. this fire alarm for an intruder alarm. Oh, God. So she had them all go under their desk. So he pulls out his phone and he's so scared

and he messages me and he messages his mom. Now, I've got a million things going on. I'm on tour. I'm doing that. Everything in my world stops. Bumble stops, yeah. It stopped. Everything else is so distant, so secondary.

I now am feeling anxious. I'm feeling fear. I'm feeling all of these. And it is immobilizing me. Right? And this is just like that, welcome. That's what you're about to get in parenting. Is that you will take over their feeling.

It's not always the best thing, but it's also lovely. Yeah. It's also lovely. So on that, Sam, I have your last surprise. If you're going to put out something that's going to to make me emotional. I'm going to say you can keep it. I don't know where you're going to go with this, but I did see this. I think it is absolutely beautiful. I've been holding this one. Okay. Okay. So, you ready? Yeah. Here we go. I would love for you to read this.

Why letters. I love letters. I don't. I'm really not hearing letters. This is my mother, isn't it? I know straight away. to Sam From the moment you entered the world You had to fight to stay You have never once moaned Or asked why me In everything you do

From carting to running your own business You give it everything You had the loudest person in the room And my God, the most charismatic person in the room You are my inspiration, my life, my world I'm so proud to call you my son Love Mum

I just hold it together for that one. Mom is the MVP. Yeah. And can I actually, I know why I'm not reacting as much to it and why I'm able to like, because I know it. I know all of that. And my mom's incredible. And I know all of that. So that, reading that, I know.

That's some profound insight right there. Yeah. I know all of that. I know. Yeah. that bond my mom and I have and share. Yeah, I know. And we, yeah.

She doesn't ever make me feel, you know, not that, you know, I'm just saying, she's just, we've just got, yeah, I know, I know. She, she, from the moment you began talking about her, you were describing unconditional love that she has for you. And you've always felt that way. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I love that. Now talking about it, I mean, I'm nearly going. So yeah, I'll get it back. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much. We have, so this is, we're doing something very special for you, Sam, and for your cause here, is that we have a link in the episode description to register right now.

And also because of you, my friend, so I have opted, I'm a donor in the United States, but because of you I'm going to become a donor here. That's amazing. That really is. And yeah, thank you. I mean, on behalf, and I don't mean that, I mean that on behalf of everyone

because something I've realized lately is what I need to be is the voice for the 8,000 people and who are waiting. Yes. And if I can help them, I'm also helping myself. Yes.

And, you know, I'm helping us all. It's not just about me, it's also about them as well. Yeah, yeah. You're ready for the final question. Go for it. That everyone gets. It is my favorite question. When you think about all of the incredible conversations you've had throughout your life,

which one stands out as the most memorable? Who was it with? And what did you learn? That's an impossible question. I mean, there's got to be so many conversations in life, which is... I'm going to give it to you. I'm going to give it to you. I think this conversation is going to stick with me.

It's not going to leave me. I think there's a reason for that. There's a reason for everything. I believe there's a reason why I'm here today. And I think we've tackled some hard things in my life, which has been like a therapy for me. And I think there's been some big things we talked about and I think this is a fantastic platform which can hopefully go on to help

loads of people and that's what I'm really hopeful for and that's why I'm doing all of this PR media storm and I'm riding the wave even sometimes when it's so not helpful is because I believe it's it's going to be helpful to other people so I think that this conversation if it goes the way I wanted to, it could really help a lot of people. I tell you, well, one is I appreciate that. I really do. I'm never, I'm never going to forget this. I mean, I'm literally becoming a donor because of you, I will not forget this, right?

But this has been an exceptional chat. I think that you should be incredibly proud of what you're doing, especially in this moment, because I think this is a moment where many people will say, you know, what Sam should just, spend time with his family. Yeah. You know, just be inwardly and reflect and be introspective. But what you're saying is, is no, you're going to do that, but you're also going to go out here and fight for other people and fight for what you know is right.

And I think that should be applauded. And also, I think that in a day and age where there's so much judgment on reality television, I think you are presenting a, like, a phenomenally positive. aspect of reality TV and what it can do. Like literally, your presence is changing lives. And you can argue that your presence is saving lives. Yeah. Well, that would be, even if it's, there's another big reason why I've done this.

So it's not just about the awareness and hopefully, you know, even if we save one life, which would be fantastic, but also the small gains and, you know, depends how you measure things. but another big gain from this is when I found out my news about needing a liver transplant my mum did the typical mum thing and she found someone for a friend of a person at the gym

who was a masseuse's friend, client, whatever, you know, as a mum does. Yes. And she found someone who also had gone through a liver transplant and she was like, do you want to speak to him? And I was in a state

and she went, we're going to speak to them. She gets the person's number through this friend's clients, masseuse's client, whatever, as mum's do. And anyway, she gives her a call and she goes, I'm speaking with my son, do you mind speaking to him? And I spoke to that lady, and she talked to me through her journey. Now, bearing mind, I literally found out that day that I need a liver transplant.

And I found it so comforting to speak to her. To hear she'd gone through this journey, and she was great. She had, it was 30 years ago. She lives her life normally, she's got children, her sister also, so there was five of them, and two of them got the disease, so two of them needed transplant. Both of them had true transplant. One had a tough journey, her sister, and herself had a journey, which was fine.

But they're both in their 40s, I believe, made it out of the self. And I found that so comforting. So I thought, if I'm going to take to reality TV to talk about the lesser important stuff of life, then it's my duty to talk about this and potentially provide that comfort for people like me going through this journey. There you go. So there was another part of that.

There was two big things of why I wanted to do this. It was... So someone who is feeling down, going through that journey, went, I saw Sam. He did it. Look at him. He's 60, 17.

Now, testament to Sam. If he can do it, I can do it. You know? Yes. There's two parts to it. you know, if we save any lives, fantastic. But even as little as just providing that comfort to someone along that journey. Yes.

So there's another reason. That's a brilliant story. And it's interesting. The moment then you said, did the mom thing. Yeah. My mother's done exactly the same thing. Exactly the same thing. There's a health issue.

She found the, this is. Yeah, yeah. It's funny how a mom will just suddenly be so resourceful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sam, it's been brilliant. Thank you very much for having me.

I really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. There we go. Sam Vanderpump. This is terrible for me to say it because I'm in reality TV. But I thought reality TV star, and I walked in thinking, okay, I'm really going to have to dig to get to this rawness. But Sam completely surprised me. A matter of fact, from the moment that I was introduced to him when he walked on to set, I thought,

this guy's real. I've never, ever heard anyone say that reality TV's been healthy for them. But I believe what he said, I think it has been healthy for him. When media immediately said he had four to five years to live, you could see how he really got emotional around that and how loved ones like grandparents and cousins, et cetera,

read that. And I'm glad that he was able to clear that out. And it shows you how impactful these press headlines are and how careful we all need to be. You know, Sam's saying that we're more likely to need an organ than we are to donate an organ. That was a light bulb moment, you know, and your brother, your sister, your family member might not be able to provide that to you. So there is a high level of importance around us, at least being aware. And not only being aware, but what Sam was very good at articulating is making our loved ones aware. Let me tell you the secret of how to look like you know what you're doing.

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