Sam Newman has been riding the high seas for charity, raising funds for the Rule Prostate Cancer organisation.
And the former footballer has revealed the moving reason he’s sailing up the Australian coast.
The 78-year-old has revealed that he was inspired to make the trip following the tragic deaths of his wife Amanda Brown and his good friend Shane Warne, who died just months apart.
‘It does make you reflect and I would say very indirectly that was one of the reasons I decided we may as well pack up and have a crack at this (sailing trip),’ he told Neil Mitchell Asks Why podcast.
‘What is the point of sitting around back in your apartment in six or seven degrees of warmth down there in Melbourne?’ Sam continued.
‘Might as well bite the bullet and come up here and do something before you don’t have the chance to do it, looking back on those two people’.
The football star’s wife, Amanda, died suddenly in March 2021, before his friend, cricketer Warne, passed away in March 2022.
‘It changed me markedly,’ the Geelong Football Club legend told The Herald Sun.
Sam Newman has been riding the high seas for charity, raising funds for the Rule Prostate Cancer organisation following the deaths of those closest to him, including good friend Shane Warne. Pictured together
‘I became more circumspect and a lot more emotional about people I know and tragedies that beset them or befall them.
‘It affected me those two deaths that I experienced. And dear Amanda, it’s coming up Sunday the anniversary of her death and that really knocked me around.’
He added: ‘Shane’s death and Amanda’s death made me readdress or reassess how I do things.
‘I think about both those people actually almost on a daily basis for a whole lot of different reasons.’
Warne passed away on March 4, the first day of a Thai holiday on the island of Koh Samui, after suffering a heart attack in his luxury villa aged just 52.
The 78-year-old has revealed that he was inspired to make the trip following the tragic deaths of Warne and his wife Amanda Brown (pictured), who died just months apart
Sam and Amanda were an item for 20 years before tying the knot in November 2020.
On his own podcast You Cannot Be Serious, Newman revealed he was out getting fish and chips on the night of her death before quickly returning home.
He was anxious after his wife failed to answer any of his calls.
Newman entered his Melbourne apartment and found his long term partner dead on the floor. She had suffered a stroke.
He performed CPR on her for 20 minutes – even though he knew it was too late.
‘I get home and I walk in the door and the television’s on in the bedroom. So I look down there and lying in her underwear — she’d obviously been in bed or she got out of bed to get something to eat,’ he said.
‘It does make you reflect and I would say very indirectly that was one of the reasons I decided we may as well pack up and have a crack at this (sailing trip),’ he said
‘She’s lying there on the tiles outside the laundry and as soon as I saw her I knew she was dead, I just knew it.
‘I rang 000 and the very helpful person said you better try and give CPR and she talked me through that.
‘I’ve got the phone on speaker and I’m pumping this poor woman who is lying there looking so peaceful, obviously dead, but the operator said keep doing it in case there’s a spark of life in her.
‘So for 20 minutes I’m giving CPR to what I knew was a corpse.’
Newman called his soulmate ‘loyal and loving, protective and strong willed’ in the podcast.
Sam set off from Queenscliff, Victoria, in May, but it has not been smooth sailing since.
Sam set off from Queenscliff, Victoria, in May, but it has not been smooth sailing since
Last month, he had to drop anchor and head to Proserpine Hospital in Queensland after being gored by his own drone
As he heads for his destination in the Whitsunday Islands, Sam has faced a number of trials.
Last month, he had to drop anchor and head to Proserpine Hospital in Queensland after being gored by his own drone.
In a social media post, Sam revealed his injured foot, which was cut deeply when a gust of wind sent the device careening into him.
He destroyed the drone in anger, before heading to hospital where he was treated for cuts, but did not requite stitches.
Sam faced another emergency when his boat caught fire when two of the vessel’s batteries shorted out.
In a social media post, Sam revealed his injured foot, which was cut deeply when a gust of wind sent the device careening into him
Sam faced another emergency when his boat caught fire when two of the vessel’s batteries shorted out
Newman said he had to ‘deploy the fire extinguisher’ but was fighting through smoke to get the blaze under control.
The trip has had ongoing dramas for the television star including ‘horrendous weather and huge sea swells of six to seven metres’.
‘We had to pull into Jervis Bay for repairs after the waves blew out a porthole and flooded most of the boat’ Sam told the Herald Sun.
At one stage, Sam had to stop water from leaking into the boat by laying on the bed and keeping the porthole closed with his feet.
The football star’s wife, Amanda, died suddenly in March 2021, before his friend, cricketer Shane, passed away in March 2022
‘It was like throwing cream puffs at the town hall. It did a fair bit of damage to the electrics and the interior of the boat’ he said.
Sam added: ‘We have had a few other minor problems; a transmission leak, a steering ram hydraulic leak, we have had a couple of burst hoses, we have had a little trouble with the radar, but we have survived.’
He is travelling with friend Sue Stanley, and it doesn’t come cheap – Sam estimates the journey is costing him $100,000.
It is Sam’s first long trip on a sailing boat, and although he has owned a few vessels, this is the first time he’s taken them out to sea.