An Exmouth father has put himself through a gruelling Ironman triathlon to help fight Alzheimer’s Disease

Ben Broyd, 31, of New Street, decided to raise money for Alzheimer’s UK after his grandmother was diagnosed with the condition.

This prompted Ben, a keen amateur runner, to take on the greatest race of his life – the Ironman UK triathlon in Bolton.

The Ironman sees competitors taking on a 2.4-mile reservoir swim, a 112-mile cycle, and a 26.2-mile marathon run all on the same day, making it one of the most awesome endurance events in athletics.

After months of training, including the Exeter Half Marathon and the Weymouth Middle Distance Triathlon, Ben proved he was up to the challenge, completing the Ironman course in 11 hours 32 minutes, and finished 280th out of 1192 finishers.

Ben, who has two daughters – Grace, 7, and Ruby, 3 – says it has been a long-term ambition of his to complete an Ironman, but it was his grandmother’s condition which finally made him go through with it.

He said: “This was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for me to do, and a personal goal, but because my grandmother is at Knappes Cross care centre with Alzheimer’s, I wanted to do it for her.”

Ben (pictured above) believes he has raised nearly �2,000 in total, which has exceeded all his expectations.

“My original target was only �750, but everyone’s been really good, and I used social networking sites to get my friends to spread the word.

“I’m massively pleased, and I’m still receiving money, so the feel-good factor from completing the Ironman is still there at the moment.

“I’d like to say thank you to all the people that supported me – they have always been encouraging.”

Although Ben has completed the race, he is still accepting sponsorship. To donate visit http://www.justgiving.com/Ben-Broyd0.