Sam Thompson has revealed that seeing his best friend Pete Wicks was an incredibly emotional moment for him during his incredible challenge for charity.
The TV and radio star, 32, has taken on a Match Ball Mission for Soccer Aid for Unicef, which sees him take on a 260-mile run and cycle over five days.
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He has carried the match ball across the country and is set to deliver the football to Old Trafford ahead of kick-off on Sunday, June 15.
On Wednesday, Sam passed through Walsall, Cannock, Stafford and Stone to reach his third finish line at Vale Park. He has officially passed the halfway point and has raised £604,280.82 for charity.
Speaking to Metro on Wednesday night after a gruelling day of racing, he spoke about breaking down into tears as soon as he saw his best friend and podcast co-host.
‘I’ve decided I’m not going to cry anymore. I can’t keep crying. I keep crying. I cried like, three times already, and we’re on day three!
‘It was, I don’t know how to describe it. It’s, it’s one of those things where, because you just don’t know it’s coming, and you’re in a world of pain, and you’re just trying to think, “one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other.”
‘And then you see somebody who’d been your rock through everything, just at some random junction, like in the middle of the road.
‘I can’t explain the feeling. It’s just like, it’s like seeing home when you are miles away.’
He added that he had the ‘exact same feeling’ when he was surprised by his brother-in-law Ryan Libbey, the day before, while bike riding and even more bizarrely had the same feeling with strangers.
‘You know, what’s so mad is coming into Port Vale today. I had the same feeling with people I’ve never met really. Yeah, it was the people who were there at the finish line, right? We’re all just a family, and it just feels so lovely.’
While chatting, Sam is having a physio session and opened up about his injured calf, which he tore in the last two kilometres of the first leg of his journey on Monday.
‘I’ve torn it so I can’t put any weight on it, so what I figured out a way – every physio is now going to be like, “you shouldn’t be doing that”, but I figured out a way to to, like, hobble on my tiptoes, and I run like a ballerina.
‘You can’t really run without using your calf, but you can move.’
We joke that at least his legs will be incredibly sculpted post-race despite three days of agony and, proving he hasn’t lost his sense of humour, Sam quipped back: ‘The left one will be tiny but the right one will be enormous!’
When asked if cycling is perhaps easier during this mammoth task than running, he confirms that they are, unfortunately, equally rough.
‘The problem is all just legs! You get on the bike, and then you’re like, okay, cool. But then you put you push down on the pedal hard. It engages your calf. Your calf basically goes through everything.’
He joked: ‘I wish we could do – have you ever seen those bikes you can ride with your arms?’
Despite his resilient sense of humour, Sam was thoughtful as he admitted the panic that’s plagued him since his injury had yet to subside.
‘The hardest part so far, I think, has been by far and away the calf. On day one, just the panic, it was like the fear.
‘I’ve waited for months to do this, and it completely changed my entire mindset. And I was so upset and so scared, and but then I’ve just, we just got the most amazing team, and we just rally around. It’s just like that. We’re going to get this done.’
Has subsided days on from the injury, now he’s reached some major milestones?
‘No. It’s got bigger,’ he said as he laughed. ‘No, I’m so close.
‘And also I’m compensating with everything on my right leg, like my right leg is doing everything. So if that packs out, I really am in a world of trouble.’
The radio host is raising money for Unicef and revealed he turned to former Made In Chelsea co-star ultramarathon charity runner Jamie Laing, who offered him guidance.
‘I spoke to him a lot. He’s a very good friend of mine. He’s been messaging me throughout this, actually, as well. He’s really been there for me, and he’s obviously been through it himself.
‘So I’m so grateful to have him there as well.’
He added that all the people who have come out to support him, along with the money he’s raising for an incredible cause, are keeping him going during the tough moments.
‘I’m just a vehicle – clearly a bad vehicle because I can’t even keep one leg good – but I’m a vehicle for this journey. The journey is all about Unicef. It’s all about the kids,’ Sam said.
‘It’s the donors who donate, and the donations that are coming in. Any person who literally donates one pound is the hero of this story. And it’s just, it has shocked me just how heroic people are to do this when times are obviously incredibly tough.
‘It just, it’s blown me away.’
Donate to Sam’s Match Ball Mission for SoccerAid for Unicef.
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