Ben's Ultimate Triathlon

For my 30th birthday, I challenged myself to compete in my first Iron-distance triathlon. This consists of a 2.4 mile (3.8 km) swim, 112 mile (180 km) bike and a 26 mile (42 km) run.

Last April this plan was dashed when my son Reuben, arrived 3 months early and turned mine and my partners world upside down. All thoughts of the event were pushed aside as we focussed all our attention on getting Reuben home.

Being so premature, Reuben spent 61 days in the Neonatal Intensive care Unit at the Royal Devon and Exeter hospital. Each day was a struggle, with our son having numerous challenges to overcome before we were finally allowed to bring him home. As first time parents, the emotional toll this ordeal had on us was significant and remains so to this day.

Thankfully, SNUGs, a local Devon charity, were there to help. Staffed by parents of premature babies, they offer guidance, help, a friendly face and a welcoming community of people with a wealth of shared experience. They helped myself and my partner immensely, and still do with their community meet-ups facebook group. On 25th June I will be participating in the UK Ultimate Triathlon a year later than planned, and would like to use this as an opportunity to raise awareness of this great charity.

The charity is entirely dependant on donations and the work they do really makes a difference to people's lives. If you can spare any money at all for this amazing cause it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.