We Need To Talk with Paul C. Brunson - Sam Vanderpump: Why I’m Fighting For Organ Donation

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

For Organ Donation Week, Sam Vanderpump's shares his life-changing health battle that began with a liver disease he was diagnosed with at just 4 years old. Sam opens up about the moment he was confronted with the possibility of dying, the fear of not seeing his future child, and why understanding the signs of sepsis could save lives. He also explains why he is campaigning for greater awareness around organ donation and shares the story of his friend Daniel, whose decision to donate his organs saved four lives. NHS Organ Donation Register - https://linkly.link/2tqu7 (00:00) Intro (01:03) Diagnosed With Liver Disease(04:38) Sam Develops Life-Threatening Sepsis(14:30) Told He Needs A Transplant (16:18) Why Organ Donation Matters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Calculating route to avoid seeing poverty. Turn left to bypass the unhoused youth sleeping on the street. Then keep right to skip by the lines of people waiting for food. Steer clear of the crowded shelter turning people away, then take the next exit. Let's stop looking away and get in the way of rising poverty. Your donations help the United Way fight poverty in thousands of ways, like providing food, shelter, and crisis prevention. Donate today at United WayGT.org.

Welcome to We're Talking. This organ donation week, I sit down with Maiden Chelsea star Sam Vanderpump to discuss the life-changing health battle that led him to become an advocate for organ donation. Let's talk about this health condition 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 once or twice you know I was very poorly and in a few weeks later sent out into a world healthy we thought I was healthy

So they dealt with a very, you know, it must have been very hard for my mum, 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 mum looks at me in a swimming pool and she goes, Sam's bigger 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, there was no fact, it was like I was pregnant. Okay. And my mom 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 I was 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.

Must have been a big, big 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 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 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 was, I thought I got the flu, had a little bit of an asthma, I've always had asthma. And I started to get really, 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 and 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. We loved 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 Heron. Yeah. And I was extremely thirsty.

I had a litre bottle of water. 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 was sitting down, I was doing a friend's engagement presence. 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 like that. So you couldn't, you didn't recognise the signs. That's why I'm such a massive advocate for the sepsons today.

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 not well, are you? So 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. Mine was in the 400th. Wow. Like basically borderline

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. 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 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 billory tree is where the bile passes through your liver. Okay. And the bumps have started constricting that billory tree, stopping the bile 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 recognize I had an infection, and because we didn't recognize, that infection became 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 body's basically attacking itself? Well, it starts, all the infection starts spreading into all the other part of your body. 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 beautiful about what you're doing is you're helping to destroy ignorance, right? I started looking at sepsis, you know, with you coming in, and these are some stats that I didn't realize. And some of these are dark. So one is, in the UK, five people die every hour from sepsis. from sepsis. The Sepsis Trust estimates about 48,000 people die each year from sepsis related illnesses.

However, thousands are preventable. Yeah. 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, you pain. 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 stat 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 Eaney. Call it out. Make sure it's not. 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. 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 septic? 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.

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 this um 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 i'm not 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 the same that I can't, I can't fathom, you know. 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 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 imagine, imaginary situation. Imagine a young lad has been hit by a car. Okay.

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 are... 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. No, 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 too 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 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 a transplant list but don't even get onto 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 a 12-hour surgery?

A liver transplant, yeah. Wow. Kidneys are amazing, right? They transplant them, like, through keyhole surgery. We're so advanced on kidney. But liver, slightly more tricky. And obviously, as you go up, the vital organs, it gets even trickier. 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, but it is. 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 timeframe? If I was born in my grandad's 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. Oh, thank you, thank you. 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 not give my organs to someone who needs them? 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 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 as finest. Think about that. 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, 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 like, and that's all I talk about. I talk about the goodness, you know. I think,

strive to be in the light, away from the dark. Absolutely. And if you want to hear the unfiltered stories from today's guest, you can check them out on the We Need to Talk page. Drop a like, leave a comment, and hit subscribe. See you next week. Calculating route to avoid seeing poverty. Turn left to bypass the unhoused youth sleeping on the street. Then keep right to skip by the lines of people waiting for food.

Steer clear of the crowded shelter turning people away, then take the next exit. Let's stop looking away and get in the way of rising poverty. Your donations help the United Way fight poverty in thousands of ways, like providing food, shelter, and crisis prevention. Donate today at United WayGT.org.