As the sport of triathlon has been pushed firmly into the spotlight with the epic Brownlee brothers’ recent Rio and World Series performances, a partner at one of south Wales’ largest regional accountancy firms has pushed himself to the limit, completing his own mammoth fundraising triathlon challenge.

Simon Tee, a partner at Celtic Springs-based Kilsby & Williams completed the extreme ‘Ironman UK’ event in Bolton and with the final total now in, has raised an impressive £3,810 for Asthma UK.

Starting with a 3.8k swim, followed by 12-mile bike ride and rounding off with a 26-mile marathon run, the Ironman challenge must be undertaken in less than 17 consecutive hours in order for participation to count and speaking about his effort to complete this test of endurance, Simon said: “I’d be the first to admit that I have certainly not always been a fitness fanatic and so to have accomplished this is a significant step in my fitness journey.

"I wanted to complete the Ironman challenge having decided I wanted to get fit after 25 years of virtually no exercise. I started with some running and swimming and then began cycling. I then put all three together and tried my first triathlon.”

Simon said: “I set myself a secret target to finish an Ironman triathlon before I was 50. While that milestone is actually next year, I am feeling my body start to creak a bit so decided to go for it a bit earlier!”

As well as his personal quest for fitness spurring him on to take part in the challenge, Simon also wanted to compete to help raise awareness and funds for a charity.

Simon said: “Asthma seems to have an impact on lots of young children and many carry this chronic condition throughout their lives. It is a condition that is having an increased impact across the whole of society and I wanted to do something to help raise both awareness and funds to help the fight against it.

"I’ve had some fantastic support from family, friends and clients alike and I’d like to thank all those who have donated to help achieve this great total.”

There are 5.4million people with asthma in the UK, meaning that asthma affects one in every 11 people and one in five households.

Every ten seconds someone is having a potentially life-threatening asthma attack in the UK and every day, the lives of three families are devastated by the death of a loved one to an asthma attack, with two thirds of these tragic deaths being preventable.

Asthma UK, head of events and community, Louise Thomas said: “It is thanks to the fantastic support of people like Simon that Asthma UK is able to fund world-leading research to find better treatments and ultimately a cure for asthma.

“Every ten seconds, someone is having a potentially life-threatening asthma attack so it’s crucial we invest in developing treatments and advice to reduce the number of people dying from such attacks.”