That was before he was diagnosed with limb girdle muscular dystrophy, a muscle-wasting condition that completely turned his life upside down.
As Adam himself admits: “I lost my licence, lost my job, lost my livelihood.
“I just went downhill from there and attempted suicide about three times.
“I couldn’t deal with it, couldn’t cope with it and that’s when I decided I needed to get back into sport.
“That was the only thing I could do and function normally, that was my outlet.”
Adam’s answer to his problem came in the shape of wheelchair rugby, a sport that allowed him to participate equally, relieve his frustrations and rebuild his self-esteem.
And, after taking up the sport himself he set up the Panthers Rugby Club, the first wheelchair rugby league club in Scotland, which has now helped change the lives of more than 1,000 people.
“I wasn’t really a rugby fan before setting up the Panthers,” says Adam, from Glasgow.
“But I became the first qualified coach in Scotland.
“I played wheelchair basketball to start with but it wasn’t aggressive enough for me — I’m an ex-martial arts instructor and I was in the TA for six years.
“So I went on to rugby, which definitely had enough aggression.
“Someone asked: ‘Is there a bit of contact?’.
“A bit? You could say that!
“You’ve got two chairs hitting each other at a combined speed of 45mph on impact,” says Adam.
“I’ve shattered my wrist about four times, broken my arms and smashed my collarbone, but you just get up, go to hospital and get it fixed and you’re back in training.
“It’s a contact sport — it’s rugby for goodness’ sake and not any different to the running version!
“A lot of people with muscular dystrophy don’t play wheelchair rugby because they think they can’t.
“I mean, I’m not supposed to play any more, but I still do.
“Regular exercise is vital to maintain mobility, the more you do, the more you hold on to.
“It’s still destroying muscle and your skeletal structure but if you don’t do anything, you just waste away.
“I was 44 when I was diagnosed seven years ago,” Adam recalls. “I’d had problems for years but I never knew what it was.
“I just put it down to a sore back, a sore arm or whatever from sitting in the truck cab all day or the usual bumps you get at judo.
“It was when I started losing sensation and tripping over my own feet that I thought: ‘Hang on, there’s something not right here.’
“I went to the doctor, but they thought I was at it at first, just trying to get a sick line, but they eventually sent me to hospital where they took a muscle biopsy.
“I ended up in the Human Genetics centre, in Newcastle, where two professors poked and prodded me before saying: ‘This is what you’ve got.’
“My muscular dystrophy is a weird one — apparently there have been only three folk in Europe who have had my condition.”
Not that it’s stopped Adam who, in 2013, was named Scottish Sports Coach of the Year for his work with young kids, and in November was named a Point Of Light by PM David Cameron as a volunteer who makes a change in their community and inspires others.
“I’m a sports ambassador for Glasgow Life Sport and at one event I worked with 500 kids who were able-bodied,” reveals Adam.
“We put them into chairs to show them how to play the game and that broke down the disability barrier.
“They don’t see me as being disabled, they just see me as a coach who hapens to be in a chair.
“I’m also a peer support worker with Muscular Dystrophy UK.
“It’s incredible how much it helps people who are having a bad day.
“If they can pick up the phone they can call a mate who knows what they’re going through.
“You get days like that, when you get really frustrated that your mind’s writing cheques your body can’t cash any more.”
If Adam gets a day like that, he knows he won’t be allowed to wallow.
“The missus keeps me going,” reveals Adam.
“If I can’t do something and ask for a hand she’ll say: ‘No. Do it yourself.’
“She’s been pushing me for years and sometimes folk will look and think: ‘That’s a bit nasty’ but it’s not, it keeps me on my toes — pardon the pun!
“The alternative is to give up or start crying and that’s the worst thing, that’s you finished — I’ve already been there and done that!”
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