[00:00:00] Keith Gooden: In today’s episode of the Motorhome Matt podcast, we look a little different as I check in with Motorhome Matt Sims recovering at home from his triple heart bypass. Excellent. Welcome to the Motorhome Matt podcast. I’m Keith Gooden.
[00:00:24] Matt Sims: And I’m Motorhome Matt.
[00:00:26] Keith Gooden: Industry insights and expert advice for the world of motorhomes, caravans and campervans. And it’s brought to you by www.thatleisureshop.com
and sponsored by Ripe.
[00:00:38] Matt Sims: Now please, we always say this, remember to follow on your favourite podcast app and if you’re watching on YouTube, click subscribe and the little bell.
[00:00:46] Keith Gooden: Well, I’m here in the studio, but.
[00:00:50] Matt Sims: I’m here at home. The power of technology.
[00:00:55] Keith Gooden: You’re going to give us a video chat on your post-op update. Matt had a triple heart bypass how many weeks ago now, Matt?
[00:01:04] Matt Sims: This is week four of recovery as we record this.
[00:01:09] Keith Gooden: They remembered to put all the bits back in, did they?
[00:01:11] Matt Sims: I hope so. Apparently you’ve got some of it in your freezer at home.
[00:01:15] Keith Gooden: I have, yeah, yeah. But Christmas is coming. Don’t worry. So how are you feeling?
[00:01:21] Matt Sims: I’m feeling okay. I’ve been advised this is a well-trodden path to recovery, and I’m walking it well. So I’ve also been told to compare week on week, not day to day. And I’m already aware of that. I’ve had good days and not so good days, in fact quite bad days. But I’m feeling actually very well. I’ve managed to get out for a walk. If you follow Motorhome Matt on socials, you’ll see I’ve been posting a little bit where I’ve been out for a walk, went to see my dad who got knocked off his bike and broke his back. So yeah, I guess my biggest fear really was actually waking up in intensive care, which was irrational and nowhere near as scary as I thought at all.
[00:02:06] Keith Gooden: Your biggest fear was waking up. I would have thought your biggest fear was not waking up.
[00:02:11] Matt Sims: Well, there’s nothing I could do about that. I had a really lovely conversation with the anaesthetist actually, and his name was James, and we were talking, we were talking politics actually. We were talking Rachel Reeves and the impact on small business. It was a really good conversation and suddenly bang, and I came round and said, is James around? I’d love to finish that chat with him. He was obviously a very good anaesthetist. And I came round, it turned out to be about nine or ten hours later. And that was my real worry, what it would be like to come round in intensive care, and it was absolutely fine. I do have to shout out a massive thanks to the cardiology team at the Bristol Heart Institute. I’m going to mention a few, if that’s okay. A real special thanks to Naz As, who brought me round. She was amazing. I’ll never forget her voice. To Monkish, to Nimi, to Rami and Samson and the whole team. There’s loads of them. The care is unbelievable. And if you’re ever having to go through anything like this, the way they look after you is out of this world. It really is one-on-one or two-on-one care. I was so well looked after. And of course a massive thank you to Professor Angelini, who did my op. He’s the main man and world-renowned as a surgeon. In fact, did this operation, was the first person to do this operation without stopping a heart. So a very talented man. He sounds like he owns an Italian pizza restaurant in the middle of Bristol. His name’s Giovanni Angelini, but.
[00:03:53] Keith Gooden: I’ll get his ice cream.
[00:03:54] Matt Sims: Yeah. Oh, don’t make me laugh. Don’t make me laugh. Do you remember the programme Only When I Laugh?
[00:04:03] Keith Gooden: Oh deary me, you can’t laugh. Why can’t you laugh?
[00:04:05] Matt Sims: It really hurts.
[00:04:06] Keith Gooden: Because they’ve opened you up down the middle, haven’t they? They basically made a canoe out of you.
[00:04:13] Matt Sims: Basically, cut a kayak. So yeah, my sternum has been cut. I promise not to show the scar. And they’ve actually given me a towel, which I’ve not got with me. It’s called my teddy, and it’s a rolled-up towel like this, which you clutch and hold when you cough or sneeze. And because coughing is excruciating. So I’m very much isolating and keeping away from any bugs because the worst nightmare would be contracting a cold. So trying to avoid that. But yeah, I’m doing well. I was told, the doctor told me that once I could climb the stairs, sex was on the table.
[00:04:56] Keith Gooden: But with him.
[00:04:58] Matt Sims: No, no. But I’ve come home to a new house. We’ve moved and Jude’s bought a bungalow.
[00:05:04] Keith Gooden: She’s living in the basement, I hear.
[00:05:08] Matt Sims: So I can climb the stairs, but yeah, there’s nothing like that going on, I can assure you. But I’m working from home and taking it really slowly. This is a long, slow road to recovery for sure. And I hope to return in the new year back to work, but we’ll see how it goes.
[00:05:29] Keith Gooden: It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast with me, Keith Gooden and me.
[00:05:33] Matt Sims: Motorhome Matt.
[00:05:34] Keith Gooden: It’s brought to you by www.thatleisureshop.com
and sponsored by Ripe. We’re talking to Matt today about his triple heart bypass and his road to recovery. You can see him today on the little screen while I’m here in the studio. We do have a nice cardboard cut-out of him though, just to make everybody feel at home at Motorhome Matt HQ. So we’ve had hundreds of messages for you, Matt. And you’d like to thank everybody for the support. You say you’ll wear it always.
[00:06:02] Matt Sims: Hear the classic joke.
[00:06:06] Keith Gooden: Thank you, Eric Morecambe.
[00:06:07] Matt Sims: Do you know what? When I came out of hospital, in fact, no, when I was in hospital, I started looking at the messages and I sent a message to Mrs Motorhome Matt and she said, just ignore them for now. It’s fine. You can be quiet for a few days. And I was able to respond to a few every day and more and more as I got better, but it literally, it must be thousands. Just overwhelming. So thank you to everyone that sent a message or posted a message of support. And people still are. I really appreciate it. And I even had a GP get in touch sending me an offer of help. And I did speak to Robert. And thank you, Robert, for your kind concern and words. And he’d had a triple heart bypass and was, and is still, a GP and just wanted to share his experience, which was really useful. So we’ve had a good chat. So I’ve made loads of new friends through this and it’s been fantastic. When we were last together, Keith, we were at the NEC and that was overwhelming, wasn’t it, with people speaking in person and giving messages to Jude. So yeah, thank you so much to everybody.
[00:07:17] Keith Gooden: David Holley got in touch. He said, I wanted to say a big thank you. I’ve been suffering with mental health issues for a while. Some due to the pressure of life, some due to the kids becoming adults with their own lives and an overwhelming feeling of stagnation and just running down the clock, he says. In June of this year, he had an epiphany, a harebrained idea that not only do I want to own a motorhome, but I wanted to live in one after never spending even a minute in one.
[00:07:47] Matt Sims: He says, after lots of conversations backed up by the knowledge gained from listening to you, Matt and others, I’ve convinced my wife and now she is as excited as I am. We both have work-from-home jobs and with some upgrades they can easily be done from a motorhome.
[00:08:04] Keith Gooden: Taking your advice, we hired a motorhome. You really told us what we didn’t want and came to the Shepton Warners show, attended almost all of the talks and left feeling incredibly lucky that a massive resource like this was available. We also went to the NEC and fell in love with far too many motorhomes.
[00:08:26] Matt Sims: It’s incredible to reflect on how far we’ve come in such a short space of time, mostly thanks to you and your team for arming us with the knowledge. In some cases, we were explaining to salesmen things about vans that they didn’t even know, and it amazed me how many didn’t know about the Euro 5 and 6 and ULEZ, for example. I’m sure they loved us.
[00:08:50] Keith Gooden: Yeah, it goes on and finishes with, anyway, rambling. Just wanted to say a big thanks. You don’t have to do what you do. Okay, he says. The cynic in me says it helps promote your businesses, stoke the ego. But there’s nothing wrong with that. He doesn’t have an ego. He told me once and I said, well, who’s the bloke with the 15-foot banners outside the NEC then? It must take a lot of time, effort and health to keep us informed. I just wanted you to know at this vulnerable time how much you mean to so many.
[00:09:21] Matt Sims: Well, we’ve had thousands of well-wishes. Too many to play or read. But we did have this rather special clip from one viewer who popped into the studio.
[00:09:32] King Charles: It’s great to be here, Matt. It’s amazing. It’s a lovely studio, and I brought one of my friends along. Well, I knew him as Squeaky. He makes me laugh. I think he’s so funny. I sometimes see him on the television and he does make me laugh a lot. And so I brought him along as Joe Pasquale.
[00:10:00] Joe Pasquale: I’d just like to say it’s very nice to be here. It’s a very nice place. I like tin tin tin. I like to go away in my motorhome. And I do like to sing a song when I’m driving along. I know a song that’ll get on your nerves, get on your nerves, get on your nerves. I know a song, get on your nerves, get, get, get on your nerves.
[00:10:22] Matt Sims: Thank you. Yeah. King Charles and Joe, aka Danny from Devon. Brilliant. Thank you so much. And again, thank you to everyone for your kind messages. But just don’t make me laugh too much. It still hurts.
[00:10:36] Keith Gooden: Thanks to King Joe. So what’s happening over the next few weeks then?
[00:10:40] Matt Sims: Well, we’ve got a lot happening. As I say, I’m able to work a little bit from home remotely. The team have been fantastic. The podcast turns four years old.
[00:10:51] Keith Gooden: If we were a tree, we’d be that thick.
[00:10:53] Matt Sims: So yeah, it’s been amazing. And what a four years it’s been. That Leisure Shop has a massive amount of offers and sales coming up. Of course, with it’s that horrible time of year with Black Friday. I don’t like Black Friday. So we’ve torn up Black Friday. I don’t mind discounting. I just don’t like Black Friday. It’s all too consumerist. But we are running Davember. If you follow That Leisure Shop, you’ll be familiar with Dave.
[00:11:23] Keith Gooden: Davember.
[00:11:24] Matt Sims: Davember. Well, November and December. We’ve got the 12 Days of Christmas. See what we’ve done there. So make sure you follow That Leisure Shop on socials. And if there are some accessories or gadgets that you’re thinking of buying for yourself or for a loved one, we have got thousands of products on sale. We would love your support. We are still a small family and friends business. It does make a massive difference. We really appreciate it. And our motorhome hire and sales business, Motorhome Holiday Company, actually turns ten in December. The 15th of December we are ten years old. And so if you’re thinking of hiring a motorhome, we have built together, put together some massive offers for motorhome hire for next year. So again, follow Motorhome Holiday Company on socials for details of those. Birthday weekend starts the 12th of December. And we’ve got some big offers in January as well if you’re thinking of hiring or trying a motorhome next year, so check that out as well. Whilst all this is going on, I will be at home resting and trying to take it easy and helping steer the ship a little bit. But yeah, it’s going to be a busy couple of months or month.
[00:12:47] Keith Gooden: And into next year. Tell us about early next year then.
[00:12:49] Matt Sims: So we kick off with the Manchester Motorhome, Caravan and Holiday Show, which co-locates with Destinations. That runs the 15th to the 18th of January 2026. And stay tuned for a special discount code which will get you in without any booking fee. I will be there giving a few talks throughout the show. Runs Thursday to Sunday, and we will have a Motorhome Matt stand there with some of our hero products for sale throughout the week. And we’ve got loads of new episode topics coming up as well. I’ve been using some of this time to research some ideas for topics next year which I think are going to be good, so stay tuned. Lots to come. And also loads of great new partnerships happening as well. So the Motorhome Matt Approved directory continues to grow. Lots and lots of businesses, brands, products and services that I can endorse want to get involved with that. So that’s going to be good too. And I think we’re going to go ahead with our monthly audience Q&A.
[00:13:53] Keith Gooden: Yeah, more Q&As. So one podcast every month will be just your questions and answers because it has proved to be a hugely popular part of the podcast, the most popular apart from the bit at the beginning with me. It’s the most popular part of the podcast and we’ve got stacks of your questions which we can’t get to. So in order to get through them, because we love every single one, and I’m not just saying that, then one every month will be a questions, a Q&A as we call it. I also hear that we’re here to celebrate someone close to us. Ripe, our sponsor, has just won the Best Motorhome Insurance Provider 2025 at the Insurance Choice Awards, so that is pretty damn good, isn’t it? Best motorhome insurance provider.
[00:14:41] Matt Sims: Well done, Ripe. Very deserved. And the awards of course are based entirely on genuine customer feedback, recognising companies who consistently go above and beyond to deliver exceptional service and value. And this is a massive reflection of the hard work I’ve seen them put into their offering. So big congratulations to the whole team. And remember, you can get 15% off your premium with Ripe. The discount applies automatically if you click the link in this episode description.
[00:15:11] Keith Gooden: It’s the Motorhome Matt podcast with me, Keith Gooden.
[00:15:14] Matt Sims: And me, Motorhome Matt.
[00:15:15] Keith Gooden: Brought to you by www.thatleisureshop.com
and sponsored by Ripe. Now we usually do a Q&A, a questions and answers, we’ve just been talking about. It’s a bit different today, different technology, but we’re going to put some of your questions in there. You were able to attend your new shop opening at Chelston Motorhomes in Somerset, and you spoke to a few customers. I understand the first one was Andy.
[00:15:42] Matt Sims: Andy, you’ve just saved some money on your air ride suspension.
[00:15:45] Andy: Absolutely, £200. And I like saving money, of course.
[00:15:49] Matt Sims: You’re Cornish.
[00:15:50] Andy: Oh yeah. Oh, definitely.
[00:15:53] Matt Sims: So how did you save £200?
[00:15:54] Andy: Well, listened to your podcast. And you interviewed a guy from Air Ride, Gary. I rang them up last week, I think it was. Yeah. And I’m booked in for November to have it installed on the back of my van.
[00:16:09] Matt Sims: It’s a game changer. You’ll love it.
[00:16:11] Andy: I hope so.
[00:16:12] Matt Sims: And you said Motorhome Matt and Gary gave you £200.
[00:16:15] Andy: £200 off.
[00:16:16] Matt Sims: Brilliant. Thank you.
[00:16:17] Andy: Gary. And you. Absolutely. And it’s up at Swindon. Yeah. But you can stay at a campsite next door or near to it. I presume they’ll come out and fit it there. Job done.
[00:16:29] Matt Sims: And what’s brought you here to the shop today?
[00:16:31] Andy: I came here because I watch your blogs, all the blogs, all the time. And I heard that this was opening, and I thought, well, I’d better come and have a look.
[00:16:40] Matt Sims: You’re very welcome.
[00:16:41] Andy: Thanks for coming. Thank you. Thanks, Andy. I’m well impressed. Good man. Yeah, and people should come here and see it.
[00:16:46] Matt Sims: There you are. You heard it from the man himself.
[00:16:49] Keith Gooden: There we go. That was a nice endorsement, wasn’t it? So that was Andy from Cornwall. I had a Cornish father-in-law, God rest his soul. He’d never hear a word you said to him, ever. But you dropped a fiver and he’d hear that all right. Steve is in Totnes.
[00:17:09] Steve: So this is my valve that fixes to my Campingaz.
[00:17:14] Matt Sims: Okay.
[00:17:14] Steve: Yeah. And I wondered if that was compatible.
[00:17:18] Matt Sims: So I saw earlier that you were screwing the GasStop and the little Campingaz adaptor together like this. Unfortunately, no, you can’t use them together. This is designed for a 6kg or 13kg LPG bottle, so Calor or Safefill screwing this in this side, that’s the input. Whereas this is for the output, but then adjusts it down to your Campingaz bottle. So sadly, no, you can’t use a GasStop in conjunction with that bottle.
[00:17:45] Steve: There’s no adaptors for it.
[00:17:46] Matt Sims: No. I guess you could make something. We don’t sell them unfortunately. But it’s fit for purpose. It is for a Calor or Safefill propane bottle. No sale for us today, I’m afraid. You can have that back.
[00:17:58] Steve: Okay. Thank you. You’re not likely to make one for Campingaz because I know they’re quite popular.
[00:18:04] Matt Sims: They are very popular. I mean, it’s GasStop that make them in Belgium. So I don’t know, maybe. I mean, the American fittings are different again. Maybe they will. I’ll ask them. Yeah. Thank you.
[00:18:15] Steve: Okay.
[00:18:16] Keith Gooden: Andrew’s from Exeter, and you might be wondering why they’re all from the southwest. It’s because the Chelston branch is in Somerset, like I said. So everybody’s coming up from that neck of the woods. Andrew’s from Exeter with a question about levelling ramps.
[00:18:30] Andrew: What are the best chocks or risers for a long-wheelbase Crafter?
[00:18:35] Matt Sims: Okay. So these are the levelling ramps.
[00:18:37] Andrew: Yep.
[00:18:37] Matt Sims: Yeah. Good question. There’s a lot of choice, isn’t there?
[00:18:40] Andrew: Yeah.
[00:18:40] Matt Sims: We have a choice here in the shop. So I’d say if you’re going on campsites that are generally flat, any are going to do the job. If you’re going a bit more off-grid, the higher the better. But you’ve also got to consider where you’re going to put them. So it’s worth buying a bag for them if they’re going to get muddy. The biggest you can fit in the van would be the best, I would say, yeah, especially if you’re going off campsites. If you’re going to a pub car park, it might be on a slope. Mind you, we stayed on a campsite recently and it was like a slide, the campsite. It was such a slope. I had two pairs of ramps and they were not enough. So sometimes you need two pairs. But it’s a great question. Thanks ever so much for visiting the shop.
[00:19:16] Andrew: Thank you very much. Lovely. Thanks a lot.
[00:19:19] Keith Gooden: And you had a very special guest come to visit you.
[00:19:21] Matt Sims: So I’m here with a very special guest. This is the father of Motorhome Matt. This is Trevor, aka Dad.
[00:19:29] Trevor Sims: And I cycled all the way here.
[00:19:31] Matt Sims: No, you didn’t, did you? You would have done normally though, wouldn’t you?
[00:19:33] Trevor Sims: Well, 59 miles.
[00:19:35] Matt Sims: And how old are you now?
[00:19:36] Trevor Sims: 81.
[00:19:38] Matt Sims: So he cycled 81 miles on his 81st birthday, and then two days later did 55 miles again.
[00:19:44] Trevor Sims: Yeah. That’s right. Yeah, 81km.
[00:19:47] Matt Sims: You’re an inspiration, Dad. So, have you got a question for the Motorhome Matt podcast?
[00:19:51] Trevor Sims: So how are you enjoying life here? Is it.
[00:19:53] Matt Sims: So we are at That Leisure Shop Chelston. It’s been good. It’s our open weekend. Just having a very special guest.
[00:19:59] Keith Gooden: Brilliant.
[00:20:00] Matt Sims: As well. Hundreds of people coming through and the till has been ringing, which has been great as well.
[00:20:04] Trevor Sims: Yeah. Your colleague tells me you’re rolling in the money.
[00:20:08] Matt Sims: I don’t know about that, but it’s been a successful weekend. So it’s a brand new shop for us and a reinvention of the Chelston shop. So it’s been lovely. So thank you to everyone that’s come. It has been fantastic. Thank you to you for coming down.
[00:20:24] Trevor Sims: It’s my pleasure.
[00:20:24] Matt Sims: And seeing what your little boy is up to.
[00:20:26] Trevor Sims: I know, yeah. Let’s have a hug. Cheers. I’m very proud of this young man.
[00:20:33] Keith Gooden: Was that your real dad then?
[00:20:36] Matt Sims: I believe he’s my real dad. Yes.
[00:20:38] Keith Gooden: Wasn’t Brad Pitt sort of just dropping in just to say hello, was it?
[00:20:41] Matt Sims: No, no, that was actually Trev, yeah. Who is currently recovering with a broken back after having a head-on collision on a blind bend on his bike. And he’s broken his L1 vertebrae, bless him. So he’s recovering slowly as well.
[00:20:59] Keith Gooden: So what came round the blind bend at him then?
[00:21:03] Matt Sims: He went round a bend on his bike to discover a horse coming toward him, being overtaken by a group of cyclists on the wrong side of the road, and he did his best to avoid them all and hit one head-on. They both came off. He broke his back. The other guy apparently lost a few teeth. So yeah, he ended up in A&E. Not the plan.
[00:21:23] Keith Gooden: Get well soon, Trev. Yeah. And how long does it take them to actually pull him out of the horse’s ass?
[00:21:29] Matt Sims: I think the horse, I think there were two horses and they just rode off. It’s dangerous, this cycling lark. Honestly, don’t be doing it.
[00:21:37] Keith Gooden: You’re not kidding. Okay then. So that was at Chelston Motorhomes. Let’s wrap things up. You’re back at the end of the year as usual, we hope, Matt.
[00:21:45] Matt Sims: Yeah. So hopefully at the end of December, I’ll be with you in the studio for our final episode of the year, where we take a reflection back on the year that’s passed and start to discuss what’s coming up in 2026.
[00:22:01] Keith Gooden: So how do people get in touch?
[00:22:02] Matt Sims: We would love it if you did. Please head to mhmp.info/askmatt. You can record your question there by clicking the orange button or fill in the form and we’ll read it for you. But do remember, please tell us where in the world you are.
[00:22:19] Keith Gooden: Yes please do. And if you’re looking for trusted brands and services, then make sure that you visit the Motorhome Matt Approved directory. You can find it at mhmp.info/approved.
[00:22:32] Matt Sims: And we would love it if you would help us by leaving us a five-star review. You can do that by heading to [unclear from transcript].
[00:22:46] Keith Gooden: Thanks for listening to the Motorhome Matt podcast. Remember to check back here for more episodes full of hints and tips and helpful advice. We’ll see you soon for another Motorhome Matt podcast brought to you with www.thatleisureshop.com.
