Dad-of-two Sam McAlpine Peyre went swimming in the Stroudwater Navigation Canal and felt unwell when he woke up the next day – but then was told an infection left him with a lifelong condition
Sam Mcalpine Peyre, 32, was left with a massively swollen leg after he went swimming in a canal(Image: Kennedy News and Media)
A dad has been left with one leg twice the size of his other after he picked up an infection from swimming in a canal.
Sam McAlpine Peyr went swimming in the Stroudwater Navigation Canal with his family, but when he woke up the next day he had a high temperature and pain in his groin. The plumber thought nothing of it, and went to work, but had to come home just hours later.
He went to bed feeling unwell and then woke up the next day with flu-like symptoms and a ‘raging’ infection in his left leg, so went to hospital to get it checked out.
Sam developed the infection after he went swimming with a tiny crack in his heel(Image: Kennedy News and Media)
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There, doctors gave the 32-year-old antibiotics for an infection which is believed to have entered his bloodstream through a ‘tiny’ crack in his heel when he went into the water. The infection then triggered lymphoedema, a chronic, incurable condition where the lymphatic system doesn’t work properly, causing swelling in the body’s tissues.
Sam went for the swim in April last year, and 12 months on his left leg is still double the size of his right, leaving him forced to wear compression bandages and reduce his activity. Sam’s wife Georgia is now urging people not to go swimming if they have any cuts or wounds, no matter how small, as the couple raise £20,000 to cover specialist surgery.
Sam’s left leg is still double the size of his right a year after he picked up an infection while swimming in a canal(Image: Kennedy News and Media)
Georgia, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, said: “I’m hoping we can raise enough awareness so it doesn’t happen to anyone else. I thought people got really sick, like vomiting and diarrhoea, but I don’t know of people who got infections.
“It’s not like he went into the hospital saying ‘I went for a cold-water swim and this happened’, because he didn’t put two and two together. He went to see a doctor and he said, ‘this is permanent, your lymphatic system in your left leg is permanently damaged and your leg will never go back to the size it was’. It just got bigger from then really, it looks really painful.”
Georgia is now trying to raise money for sam to get a private surgery to help ease the swelling(Image: Kennedy News and Media)
Georgia, who works in marketing, is now raising money for Sam to get private Lymphaticovenous Anastomosis (LVA) surgery, which can help manage lymphodema. Georgia said: “When it happened initially, it was such a huge shock.
“We went swimming on Sunday, he woke up with really bad pain in his groin on Monday morning and went to work but had to come home a few hours later. He woke up the next day with this raging infection that was halfway up his leg so it only took twelve hours for the infection to escalate.
It took just 12 hours for Sam’s infection to rapidly escalate(Image: Kennedy News and Media)
“He was really unwell and he had a really, really high temperature. We rushed him to a hospital, and they said ‘we’re going to put you on a course of antibiotics’. A few more days went by, and the infection was not getting any better.
“The redness was exactly the same, and his symptoms were exactly the same. He went back down to the hospital again, and they upped the dose of antibiotics, and within 24 hours it was still the same. They said ‘you’ve picked up an infection, most likely in the crack of your heel, have you been swimming? and he was like, ‘Yeah I went swimming five or six days ago’.
Sam’s wife Georgia is now trying to raise awareness of the dangers(Image: Kennedy News and Media)
“The damage was so significant to his lymphatic system that it completely damaged it beyond repair. It wasn’t a cut, it was a tiny, tiny crack in the back of his heel, he didn’t even know he had it beforehand. It aches after an extended period of time so sometimes he’ll say ‘I just need to get my leg up’ and then he has to sit with his leg in the air. I haven’t seen him wear shorts for a year, and he would wear shorts at three degrees in May, that’s the kind of guy he is.”
Sam’s lymphatic system in his leg has been damaged beyond repair by the infection(Image: Kennedy News and Media)
A Stroud Valleys Canal Company spokesperson said: “We are saddened to hear about the ill-health of someone who had reportedly swam in the canal. In the interests of public safety we would refer anyone who enjoys wild swimming to the rules of the Canal and River Trust, which does not permit unauthorised swimming in its canals.
“As a matter of public safety this should also be followed on all canals including the Stroudwater Navigation. Generally, canals are quite shallow, there are many unseen hazards and water quality is not suitable for swimming. In addition, they are operation spaces with moving boats, weird, sluices and locks making them unsuitable and unsafe for swimming. Further information is available on the CRT website here.”
Sam’s GoFundMe is available here.