Inspirational triathlete Swim-Ride-Runs in the name of charity

Triathlons are one of the most intense and gruelling sports out there. With their relentless combination of cycling, swimming and long-distance running, they’re certainly not for the faint hearted. This doesn’t deter Barmby’s Kenton Robbins though, who will be competing in The Homecrafts Goole Sprint Triathlon for the second year running – all in the name of charity.

Kenton’s been on quite the journey to get to where he is today, and in 2013 would probably have never even considered competing. He told Our Goole: ‘Back in 2013 I started to present with atrial fibrillation as my heartbeat become irregular. After an extensive period of diagnosis, they found that my lymphatic system and my lymph nodes were enlarging. One of the scans revealed a tumour on my thyroid. On a positive note, the tumour was benign but the recovery took longer than expected.

Unfortunately, after eight months, I found two more tumours in my throat. Luckily, they were more accessible for the surgeon and after a short convalescence I was back to work and looking forward to rude health again.’

After such a tough time, Kenton chose to look to the future and put his time and energy into HIIT training, working closely with Mark Wilson of Lion Fitness, based in Selby. It didn’t take Kenton long to find his fitness improving dramatically.

Kenton then took his wife to watch the triathlon at Allerthorpe, and found himself completely inspired: ‘Mark and I booked on to the Goole Tri in 2016. We gave it our all and after everything I’d been through, I wasn’t going to let a Swim-Ride-Run get in the way!’

With the success of his first triathlon, Kenton decided it was time to put his new sport to good use. This year, he’s set himself the mammoth challenge of a full year’s triathlon season with at least six events, roughly one a month from March to September. During this triathlon season, Kenton will be raising money for a whole host of charities, including the Butterfly Thyroid Cancer Trust. The charity is there to help anybody struggling with thyroid cancer and is the first of its kind dedicated to this type.

This is a cause that is very much close to Kenton’s heart, and makes the hard work in his training all the more worthwhile. Other charities Kenton will be fundraising for during his challenge include: Macmillan Cancer Support, Alzheimer’s Research UK, Children’s Burns Trust and The Fountain Centre.

His big race in Goole is just a few months away – The Homecrafts Goole Sprint Triathlon 2017 will kick off on Sunday, October 1st. He’s even tempted to run in a separate event next month – The Goole Triathlon, which takes place on Sunday, July 16th. We encourage all our readers to take a look at Kenton’s Twitter feed: @kentonr, where he will be posting updates of all his races as well as more details on his fundraising.

He’ll also be competing in York this month. You can donate to Alzheimer’s Research for this race via his JustGiving page at: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kenton-robbins2

For The Homecrafts Goole Sprint Triathlon, to raise funds for the Butterfly Thyroid Cancer Trust, donations can be made here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kenton-robbins6