A Northern Ireland dad, who has undertaken a massive challenge this year to raise money for stroke victims, is preparing for his final event this New Year's Eve.
It's a miraculous milestone for Karle Farquhar, from Co Tyrone, and comes a decade after suffering a stroke.
Karle turned 50 this year and at the beginning of 2024, to mark ten years since his stroke and to give back to his local community, he decided to take on a ‘52 in 52’ challenge to raise money for the Mid Ulster Stroke Support Group, based in his native Cookstown.
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He said: "Back in 2014, I had a stroke aged 39 consisting of two blood clots on the brain. Believe it or not I was in the middle of doing an Ironman and we didn’t know for two or three days afterwards as we thought it was just fatigue.
"It was scary but I didn’t dwell on it. I had my challenges at the start but have been very lucky to make a full recovery as many don't, which is horrible. I asked the doctor what I needed to do to move forward and I was advised that I would never do another triathlon again."
Determined not to be kept from the sport he loved for too long, fast forward seven months and Karle got the all clear to phase himself back into work. But after he walked out the door and before he got back to the car, Karle had signed himself up for Ironman Lanzarote — the toughest Ironman in the world — a year and a half later.
He added: "The next challenge would be to mark my 10th year anniversary of having the stroke and also my 50th birthday year so I wanted to do something to give back to the community. I decided to raise money and awareness for the Mid Ulster Stroke Support Group in Cookstown."
For the first four months of the year, once a week he did a Sprint triathlon consisting of 750m swim, 20k bike, 5k run, followed in May by another four months of an Olympic triathlon of 1500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run. For the final four months of the year, Karle has been doing an incredible Half-Ironman distance triathlon once a week, which consisted of 1900m swim, 56mile bike, and 13.1mile run.
As a result and with the support of his wife Sandra and their six children, Karle has raised almost £5,000 for the group so far, and says he wants to shine as much light as possible on those working behind the scenes to keep the organisation going.
He explained: "I didn't even know there was a support group in Cookstown, but they meet every Tuesday and recently celebrated their 25th anniversary. They are an amazing group of people helping other stroke survivors deal with everyday life and helping them by giving them an outlet to go to every Tuesday and meet up for a chat, some tea and biscuits and valuable time with other like minded people.
"I'm giving back to the amazing people that help others and ask for nothing. My goal was to raise funds that will go directly to them at the end of the year, and also get as many people out with me in any way possible no matter what their ability is."
Now as 2024 draws to a close, Karle is looking forward to seeing many of his fellow stroke support group members on New Year’s Eve, for the grand finale of his ‘52 in 52’. Starting at 7am on December 31, Karle will kick off his 5.2km swim in Cookstown Leisure Centre. He will then undertake a 5.2km cycle, consisting of two large loops of Cookstown, and will then run 52km.
Karle added: "It's going to be an epic day with loads of opportunities for anyone to jump on board and have a go at any or all three stages of the triathlon. Last but not least I will be meeting up with the stroke survivors group on the day to walk up Cookstown's Main Street as this is what this is all about.
"The awareness that I hope this brings to the survivors group is long overdue as they need to be kept going for the massive work and support they do for everyone affected by stroke. I will gladly have my moment with them and then get back to the run and hopefully we'll finish early enough so everyone can go and celebrate bringing in the New Year."
Follow ‘52 in 52’ on Facebook to keep up with Karle’s journey or you can donate to his JustGiving page here:www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/52in52trathlons.
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