Cookstown dad's New Year's victory after completing 52 triathlons in a year

A Northern Ireland dad, who has undertaken a massive challenge to raise money for stroke victims, is preparing for his final event this New Year's Eve.

After suffering from a stroke, Karle Farquhar from Co. Tyrone was told he would not be able to do a triathlon again - but 10 years later he's worked against the odds time and time again.

In 2024 the Cookstown man challenged himself to do 52 triathlons in 52 weeks to raise money for Mid Ulster Stroke Support Group, a charity helping stroke survivors deal with every day life.

Speaking to UTV about his motivations Karle said: "Well, simple motivation was whenever I had a stroke.

"I'm not a down and out person. It's more what do you do to move forward and I always wanted to give back to the ones that helped me."

He continued: "And then living in Cookstown I actually never knew about the Ulster stroke survivors. I went and spoke to Jane and Mary, Lisa and it was a no-brainer to help them as much as I possibly could."

Karle had a stroke at the age of 39 and was told he would never be able to do a triathlon again. However seven months he got the all clear to phase himself back into work.

Feeling stronger, it wasn't long until Karle had signed himself up for Ironman Lanzarote, the toughest Ironman in the world - a year and a half later.

For his 50th birthday and the 10th anniversary of his stroke he decided to take on the '52 in 52' challenge.

For the first four months of the year, Karle did a Sprint triathlon consisting of 750m swim, 20k bike and a 5k run once a week.

Followed by another four months in May embarking on a 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 a 1900m swim, 56mile bike, and 13.1mile run.

For the grand finale on New Year’s Eve Karle will do his 52nd triathlon in Cookstown. Starting at 7am he will kick it off with a of 5.2km swim, followed by a 52km cycle and finishing with a 52km run.

Speaking on the support from locals Karle said: "That's what it's all for. It's the awareness for the group and the people. I was lucky when I had a stroke, I had a full recovery, there's a lot of people haven't.

"That awareness and that help is what I'm doing this for. When I get it tough later on in the run, the first thing you think about is the group, and away you go, like a switch."

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