BROTHERS Gregg and James Harvey from Farnham have completed their first ironman event in memory of James’ daughter Mia Claire who died from a rare genetic condition aged just three weeks old.

Mia was born in June 2008 with epidermolysis bullosa (EB) which causes severe and painful blistering of the skin making it so fragile that sufferers are often referred to as butterfly children.

Tragically certain types of the condition can be fatal in infancy, and James’ daughter passed away just three weeks after entering the world. There is currently no cure for EB.

Eight years on, to raise money and awareness for charity DEBRA which provided care and support to James and his family after their loss, the brothers headed to the south coast on September 11 to take part in the Weymouth Ironman.

As members of the Farnham and Straford-upon-Avon triathlon clubs, both Gregg, 33, and James, 31, had completed many smaller events in the past - but nothing on the scale of the Ironman which saw 2,800 people undertake a mammoth 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile marathon-length run.

Prior to the event, the brothers embarked on an intensive training schedule of up to 20 hours a week to ensure they were at the optimum level of fitness for the challenge, which had to be completed within 16-and-a-half hours.

They both finished comfortably within this time, James in just under 14 hours followed around an hour later by his brother, and were supported all the way by friends and family, including their dad Dave who owns The Borough-based outdoors-wear specialists Breaking Free. They have already raised £1,200 for DEBRA.

Afterwards James said: “It was pretty tough, but a lot of training went into it and that was probably harder than the actual day - keeping the momentum up over nine months.

“It takes a while getting used to competing non-stop for around 14 hours and it was an awfully long day. The pain on the day makes you say you’ll never do it again, but once you’ve finished it spurs you on to another one and we would both like to do more.”

James added both he and his brother wouldn’t have been able to complete the challenge without the support of their family, many of whom - including James’ four-year-old daughter and Gregg’s two children - came down to Weymouth to cheer them on.

He continued: “It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for many years for my daughter Mia. We’ve done lots of little charity things but this was the first big thing that I wanted to complete for her.

“I still suffer from anxiety issues now eight years later, so it was something that obviously takes it out of you big time. But DEBRA were brilliant from the very start, and it’s important to raise awareness for the charity.”

Donations can be made online at www.justgiving.com/ironbrothers, at Breaking Free in The Borough, Farnham or by texting GHJH99 followed by the amount, for example ‘GHJH99 £5’, to 70070.