STAFF and families of a Mary Tavy-based business completed a unique challenge to raise thousands of pounds for charity.

Employees of Diana Heal and Co, chartered tax advisors, set themselves the task of jointly completing a 'deconstructed triathlon'.

The idea came from eight-year-old twins of employee Sarah — Tom and Eva Brown — who wanted to raise money for West Devon children's charity CHICKS (Country Holidays for Inner City Kids) and also for a cancer charity.

Practice owner Diana's step father Ronald Blazier died from bladder cancer earlier this year, so the chosen cancer charity was Action on Bladder Cancer.

Tom wished to cycle 40-miles in one go and Eva chose to swim 40 lengths of Kelly pool. The adults then devised the deconstructed triathlon around this.

In August Martin Heal swam the 2.7km open water Devoran Inn to Inn swim in 43 minutes, coming in the top third of a 140 field. Eva then completed her swim in September, swimming 40 lengths of the pool in a time of 35 minutes and 29 seconds.

The cycle challenge from Ilfracombe to Plymouth was completed by Martin and Richard Brown, while youngster Tom and Diana, who had to learn how to ride a bike, reached their target of 40- miles on the first day and cycled a total of 54-miles over the two days doing all the non-road parts of the trip.

The triathlon ended with Sarah Brown running her first half marathon in the Great West Run in Exeter in 2 hours, 5 minutes and 50 seconds and Martin running his first competitive run for the Tavy 7 in a time of 1 hour 5 minutes. Diana, Tom and Eva joined in with the 1.5-mile fun run on the same day, with the children being in the St Peter's School teams which came second and third in the Tavy 7 cup.

Diana said: 'We all really enjoyed the challenges that we set ourselves. We each set a personal challenge to learn to do something we had not done before, or train to run, cycle or swim to levels far beyond those previously achieved.

'There were some struggle points when I injured my knee before learning to cycle, Tom suffered an ongoing injury shortly before the ride and Sarah sometimes found the training for her half marathon tough going as a result of past injuries, but we were always spurred on by the goal of raising money for the two charities.

'Where possible we all attended each event to support one another and celebrate crossing the finishing line on each occasion.'

Diana said a lot of fun was had by all and the team raised a total of £2,055.

The money was split between the charities, with CHICKS receiving £1,157.50 and £897.50 for Action on Bladder Cancer.

The team expressed thanks to all clients, family and friends who sponsored and encouraged them this year.