What Happens When You Bet Everything on Hope

Watching my partner go from saying, “I don’t think I can have kids,” to becoming the most incredible mother I’ve ever seen, has been one of the most powerful things I’ve experienced in my life.

It wasn’t just an offhand comment. Early in our relationship, she humbly came to me one night and said quietly, “I don’t think I can have kids… based on what I’ve been through.”

She wasn’t crying or seeking pity. It was more like she was bracing me for disappointment, just in case things ever got serious. There was a kind of peace in the way she said it, but it was the kind of peace that comes from giving up hope.

She’d never actively tried for a baby before, but she’d also never not tried in her previous long-term relationships, and it just never happened. Enough years of “maybe one day” had turned into “probably never.” You could feel how much it had shaped her. That belief had dug its roots in deep, the kind that doesn’t come from logic, but from quiet heartbreak that’s been sitting there too long.

I remember sitting there for a moment, taking it in. Then I looked her straight in the eyes and said, dead serious, “Leave that shit to me.” I meant it. I wasn’t dismissing her, I was claiming responsibility, the way a man should when he believes in something with his whole chest.

I’d already been deep into biohacking and performance recovery, experimenting with red light therapy, cold exposure, breathwork, and everything I could to optimise health from the inside out. So when she told me what she believed, I immediately thought of what could help her body remember what it’s capable of.

I ordered the best red light therapy machine I could get my hands on: full-spectrum, high-powered, clinical grade. Not a gimmick off the internet, but a serious piece of kit designed to heal and rejuvenate cells. When it arrived, we started using it every night, around forty minutes over her belly before bed. The warm glow filled the room and became part of our nightly rhythm. Sometimes we’d talk, sometimes we’d laugh, sometimes we’d just sit in silence while that deep red light washed over her.

There was something grounding about it. It wasn’t about trying to force anything. It was about trust, in her body, in nature, in something bigger than both of us.

Then, about a month later, I was in my office working when I heard her footsteps racing down the hallway. She burst through the door, eyes wide, smiling so hard she could barely breathe, holding up a test in her shaking hand. She didn’t even need to say it... her face said everything.

She was pregnant.

She was half laughing, half crying, and completely overwhelmed. I just sat there in silence for a second, completely stunned. It wasn’t some dramatic movie moment. It was raw, real, and perfect. A single heartbeat in time where everything shifted.

That night, we couldn’t stop smiling. We just kept looking at each other like, is this really happening? All the doubt, all the weight she’d been carrying for years — gone. Replaced by this beautiful chaos of excitement and disbelief.

That moment didn’t just change our lives — it became the foundation for something much bigger. The same red light therapy that helped us conceive became the core of Primal Recovery, our family business. What started as a personal experiment to help my partner heal turned into a purpose: helping others rebuild their bodies, their confidence, and their belief in themselves.

When clients come into Primal and ask about the red light therapy machine, this is always the first story I share. It’s how it all started. I tell them what it did for us, and I can see in their faces that spark of curiosity and hope, that same feeling we had in those early days. Over time, I’ve started hearing their stories too. People recovering from injuries, balancing hormones, improving energy, and even overcoming fertility challenges of their own. Slowly, I feel like I’m adding more success stories to the list, but none will ever be as close to the heart as ours.

Now that she’s past the pain of thinking she’d never have children, watching her as a mother is honestly one of the most heartwarming things I’ve ever seen. She’s gone from doubting her own body to becoming the absolute embodiment of everything a child could want in a mother: nurturing, fierce, patient, and strong.

There’s something about seeing her hold our son that hits me in the chest every time. The way he reaches for her, the way she makes him laugh. It’s like the universe made up for every year she thought it wouldn’t happen.

And for me, it’s lit a fire that never goes out. I pour everything into building and running Primal. Every sauna, every ice bath, every recovery session, every client who walks through the door looking to feel alive again, because I know firsthand what transformation looks like. I’ve seen what’s possible when the body and mind are given what they truly need to heal.

Those two, her and our son, are the heartbeat behind everything I do now. Every late night wiring up equipment, every early morning cleaning ice out of the baths, every person I talk through recovery with... it all traces back to that one moment of light and belief.

Red light therapy gave us more than a business. It gave us a family.

And every time I see that warm glow fill a room at Primal, I’m reminded of how it all began: a simple moment of faith, a quiet ritual, and a love strong enough to challenge what we were told was impossible.

• Mick | Find out more at Primal Recovery