‘Memories are all we have’: Sam Newman opens up on his high seas adventure

He packed up and set sail to Far North Queensland and now Sam Newman has told Neil Mitchell the big reason that made him bite the bullet on the adventure.

Sam Newman has revealed his decision to pack up and set sail to Far North Queensland was “indirectly” motivated by the shock deaths of his wife Amanda and his close mate Shane Warne.

Warne and Amanda passed away within months of each other — Amanda in May 2021 and Warne in March 2022 — and Newman told the Neil Mitchell Asks Why? podcast that their sudden and unexpected passing had made him reflect on the fragility of life and that the future was not guaranteed.

Shane Warne was a close mate of Sam Newman. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Newman with his wife Amanda, who died in 2021.

“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 Mitchell.

“What is the point of sitting around back in your apartment in six or seven degrees of warmth down there in Melbourne?

“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 you just mentioned.”

Newman is raising awareness of prostate cancer and the Rule Prostate Cancer charity while on his Queensland sailing trip — which has had its fair share of dramas, including Newman’s boat catching fire and him being hit by his own drone.

Newman with his boat, Angst. Picture: Youtube

He is raising awareness of prostate cancer and the Rule Prostate Cancer charity. Picture: Instagram

“The only thing you have in life are memories, you don’t have anything else,” Newman, 78, said.

“The here and now is us chatting, the future we don’t know what that holds, so the only thing you have is to look back on what has happened in your life.

“In order to appreciate the very good life you have had and the highs you have had, you have to endure some of the lows, and that puts in perspective the life that you lived.”

Mitchell’s podcast is nominated as Best Podcast By A Radio Show in the Australian Commercial Radio and Audio Awards which will be held in Sydney on October 12.

He is also nominated as Best Talk Presenter and Best Current Affairs Presenter.