The strongest triathlete: Sam Perkins tribute

Sam Perkins was strongest triathlete I ever had the privilege to meet. Not the best triathlete — although I do recall him saying that he once clocked 23 minutes for a 1500m swim, which most of us would jump at. Running was less his forte. 

When he completed the London Marathon last year by unconventional means (which I’ll come on to), he joked that it was likely the fastest way he would ever tackle the streets of the capital. But still, he was the strongest. And over the past five years, that strength only grew.

When I first met 37-year-old Sam Perkins in 2019, he could hardly breathe. He’d only received the diagnosis of motor neurone disease (MND) a few months earlier, but his lungs had packed up first, and he was using a ventilator. 

By the time I saw him for the last time at the start of this year, watching his beloved Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup tie from a bedroom he’d not been well enough to leave for three months, he could no longer move, talk, or eat. 

Eye recognition software helped him type out messages, a common one being ‘suction’ to clear out saliva. Sam never underplayed how MND strips a person physically because, in understanding its cruelty, we should only strive harder for a cure. 

Not that it had been an unproductive week for Sam. Two days earlier, a cheque had been dropped off for £5,000 for Sam’s charity, Stand Against MND, which he founded upon diagnosis and which continues to raise hundreds of thousands to help fund research at the University of Nottingham. 

Triathlon and endurance sport had been the hook for his fundraising, a metaphor for his resilience. Make no mistake: Sam was the driving force, often with a fierce will that overruled more sensible judgement. 

Initially, he wanted to be towed around in a boat and on a bike at the Outlaw in Nottingham in 2020. The pandemic put it on hold, and by the time that goal was realised, it had been scaled back to the Outlaw Half in 2022, with Sam being pushed for the run leg. 

Covered in issue 405 of the 220Triathlon magazine, the team he assembled —family, friends, Nottingham Forest players — speaks to the esteem in which he was held. 

Not sated by that, he was offered the chance to take part as a wheelchair-assisted athlete in the 2023 London Marathon, where a buckled wheel on the adapted chair ultimately led to aborting the attempt after 15 miles. 

Undaunted, and once again with four-time Ironman world champion Chrissie Wellington on his team of pushers, Sam was racing Rob Burrow and Kevin Sinfield in the Leeds Marathon a month later. 

He convinced us it was a good idea. It was. The day ended in a craft brewery, where Sam had a few sips of ale for one of the final times. 

Unfinished business meant a return to the London Marathon last year — and redemption. By now, the team had spare wheels, spare ventilators, and a supporting pram full of medical supplies. 

The merry band of family, runners, and carers that accompanied him made for a weekend to cherish. Tears of frustration were swapped for tears of joy. 

In the aftermath, Sam channelled his emotions into blog posts on the charity website— worth a few minutes of your time. 

When I saw Sam for the final time, in his room in East Leake, with the world smaller now, I was more awestruck by his strength of human spirit than at any time previously. 

You may remember that in her pro career, Chrissie Wellington sought inspiration from Rudyard Kipling’s If. When I hear that poem now, it is these four lines that will always remind me of Sam: 

“If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them:

‘Hold on!’” 

Sam Perkins died on 9 February 2025 at home in East Leake. He was 43 years old.