Man 'had to sort life out' after wife's diagnosis

Sam Perrett vowed to make a difference and raise money for the charity MS Society

A man planning a fundraising challenge following his wife's multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis has said he realised he had to sort his life out for his two daughters.

Sam Perrett, from Worcester, will begin his £500,000 Source2Sea expeditions on 20 September, after Nikki was diagnosed in 2023.

He is due to follow the length of five rivers over five years and use a combination of hiking, kayaking and cycling, starting with the River Severn this year before going abroad.

"[At] the beginning of last year I kind of had this big epiphany that I need to sort my own life out, make sure I'm as healthy as I can be to be around for as long as possible for our young girls," Mr Perrett said.

"[I] stopped smoking and stopped drinking energy drinks, got on the bike, got in the kayak."

His wife's diagnosis with relapsing-remitting MS two years ago "was quite out the blue".

"She ended up effectively blind over the Christmas before and was in [hospital] and [had] scans and stuff [and] she ended up with that diagnosis.

"[There are] two young kids as well. They're now three and 10."

He said kayaking was the newest discipline for him

Mr Perrett said his wife was "very, very supportive and I do appreciate that".

He stated pretty much every weekend he had either "gone out and done some kind of a short hike or multi-day expedition".

"I'd done 40 kilometres (25 miles) on the River Severn.

"Obviously she's had the kids at home and obviously I'm disappearing off to Scotland to go and do training rides and I'm disappearing for whole weekends."

Mr Perrett, who vowed to raise money for the MS Society, admitted he had "completely over-estimated" how much he thought he could do in a kayak in a day.

"The River Severn's probably one of the easier rivers... You've still got to know what you're doing.

"That 40 kilometres I did took me the day... But at the same time achieving that 40k in a day was like 'OK, I know I can do 40'.

"Whether I can [do] 40 day after day is yet to be seen."

The other rivers he has announced are the Rhone in France and Switzerland, the Tagus in Spain and Portugal, and the Rhine, which begins in the Swiss Alps and ends in the Netherlands.

"Year five I have now decided what it is, but I'm keeping that one under wraps for now.

"But it's big... at least three-and-a-half times the length of the Rhine."

What is multiple sclerosis?

According to the NHS, MS is a condition that affects the brain and spinal cord.

It cannot be cured, but treatment can help to manage it.

Symptoms include fatigue, blurred vision, dizziness, memory problems, cramp and numbness.

Ms Perrett has relapsing-remitting MS, which means she has flare-ups of symptoms where they get worse and then go away or get better.