In honour of his late wife Nick Fitzpatrick has spent the past ten months training for the grueling Sunsmart Ironman.
The ultimate challenge for triathletes will see him swim 3.9km around Busselton Jetty, cycle 180km and run 42.2km.
While spending up to 20 hours per week training for the event, he has been raising vital funds for Silver Chain’s home-based palliative care service that kept his wife comfortable and as pain free as possible in her final days.
“In the final days of her life, my wife Lisa was able to be in the comfort of her own home, being cared for and loved by her family and ultimately when she took her last breath, we were all present, holding her hands and being with her,” Fitzpatrick said.
“None of this would have been possible without Silver Chain providing home-based palliative care.
Thanks to the service we had 24 hour access to nurses who were always there to help if we needed them and to ensure Lisa was as pain free as possible.
“That palliative service was priceless to us, it truly was. I could never thank the nurses enough.”
Fitzpatrick decided to take part in the Busselton Ironman to give himself another positive focus that was outside of his duties as a dad to his two girls.
The training helped Fitzpatrick realise that when he is fit, he is actually a better dad and that’s what is most important of all.
Since he started training he has logged over 300 sessions, over 430 hours of training, travelled more than 7000 km on bike and foot, burned more than 310,000 calories and lost about five kilograms.
“It’s a huge challenge for me and not one that I could contemplate without a lot of hard work to prepare. I’ve been training for most of this year, starting in February to get consistent hours in before I started on a more formal schedule with a coach in May.
“My goal is to finish and to be strong enough that I can appreciate every moment of the race, with Lisa and our daughters in my head and heart,” he said.
This will probably be the hardest physical thing I’ve ever done but I want to do it justice by giving it my all.
To show your support for Nick and help him raise vital funds visit https://give.everydayhero.com/au/nick-45.
