A BAKER from East Cornwall has raised nearly £500 for charity by cycling, jogging and swimming 65-miles.

Chrissie Dawe, who works at Callington Tesco, has just completed the supermarket’s Try-athlon for Diabetes UK, the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK’s Race For Life.

Chrissie, 34, said: ‘All of these diseases are quite common within my family, which is pretty scary. Throughout the journey I’ve talked to supporters, fighters and survivors — each have their own personal stories which really helped and inspired me to carry on through the pain barriers.’

For the event, Chrissie swam 22-miles (the width of the English Channel at its narrowest point), cycled 27-miles around Glastonbury, ran a half marathon (13-miles) in London and has so far raised £474.74.

‘Tesco set a challenge and it was on my bucket list to one day do a triathlon,’ said Chrissie. ‘The swimming was split between Lux Park in Liskeard and Saltash Leisure Centre. It was actually probably the easiest as it was a collective effort of smaller 100 length swims. Having not previously swum for some years, it was surprising how quickly my stamina built up and it was by far the most painless of the three sports.

‘The cycling was a bit of a challenge as I knew it would be. I am not a natural cyclist but I did it in 1 hour 25 minutes.

‘The final challenge took place just outside of London in the Lee Valley Country Park on a warm sunny day. This was the first ever all women’s half marathon organised by Cancer Research UK.

‘Having trained with only a couple of ten and 12-mile runs beneath my belt, my objectives were to finish and make sure I ran all the way. It would have been easy to walk for a bit as many of my co-runners did, but that’s not what I set out to do — my stubborn head prevailed and, despite it actually properly hurting from mile 11 onwards, I did it. I came in 647th out of nearly 2,500 runners — not bad for a first timer!

‘Hopefully, in not too many more years with the continued support of fundraising, there will be cures to these diseases. I would like to thank every single person who added to my collection bucket or clicked through to my JustGiving site. Your generosity was absolutely fantastic — many thanks!’

If you would like to support Chrissie’s challenge, visit www.justgiving.com/teams/Chrissie-Dawe