TO complete an Ironman, you have to be made of pretty stern stuff. It’s right there in the title, after all.

But for Aimee Bowen, not only did she have to dedicate herself to training and take on the gruelling challenge single-handedly, she also had to do it in the midst of losing her mum.

Aimee, from Beulah, near Builth Wells, had originally planned to compete in Ironman

Vichy in 2020, but firstly the pandemic and then her mum Jayne’s bowel cancer diagnosis put things on the backburner.

Her goal was to cross the finish line in France with her mum and all her family cheering her on from the sidelines. She never thought her mum would be watching on from above.

“This one was supposed to be different, it was supposed to be me raising money for charity, but then it became a bit different because of mum passing away,” said the 28-year-old, who finished the August 21 event in just over 12 hours.

“I just remember bawling my eyes out at the finish line. I was ecstatic to see my family and see dad and Gareth (her brother).

“But I got my medal at the finish line and burst out crying and just had to walk off. At the end of the race you go into a big area where there’s lots of food, because you’ve had nothing to eat for 12 hours, and everyone was sat there chilling and eating food and I was so emotional I couldn’t eat.

“I think I had a bit of a brownie and a piece of melon. It was emotional and I think it was emotional for the whole family.”

County Times: Aimee Bowen became an Ironman in August Aimee Bowen became an Ironman in August (Image: None)

Aimee had targeted Ironman Vichy because the family have a holiday home in France. They had all been together there in August 2020 after Jayne’s initial bowel cancer had successfully dissipated and to celebrate her dad Dave’s 70th birthday.

Jayne underwent continuous chemotherapy after the cancer spread to her lungs, but the future seemed bright, with doctors declaring the cancer in the lungs was small and could be kept that way and managed continually.

But, after they returned from holiday, she deteriorated quite rapidly and died in the November.

“We went to France for dad’s 70th birthday and she wasn’t right, we knew something wasn’t right,” added Aimee.

“We came home and she kept falling over but it was Covid so hospitals weren’t rushing to see her. I was in Cardiff and would go home every weekend and could see she was getting worse every week.

“First she had a stick, then a frame then she was getting numb in her feet. It was hard to get her to have a scan and eventually she was taken to hospital in an ambulance. She had the brain scan and the cancer was in the back of the brain, which was inoperable. She went within 2 months.

“I hated Covid but it at least meant me, my dad and brother looked after her, with no carers. It was the best thing we could have ever done.

“I think if Covid hadn’t been around they’d have put her in hospital which would have been horrid. I was quite thankful restrictions were in place. At one point, two weeks before she died, they said ‘she has to go in’, but we said no, she has to stay here, because they wouldn’t have let us see her.

“Nurses came but we cared for her ourselves and we came together as a family.”

For many people, their mother’s death would have rendered everything else irrelevant and the event would have been forgotten about altogether. For Aimee, however, it only seemed to make her more determined to get to the start line.

“We have a holiday home in France so I wanted to do the Ironman there,” added Aimee, a behavioural analyst who now lives in Cardiff.

“I had seen Gareth compete at an Ironman in Tenby which was amazing, so I wanted mum and dad to be there so we could all have a holiday. Covid happened so it was delayed and then when mum passed away, doing the event turned out being very different to what it should have been.

“It made the race a lot harder but also, because of what happened to mum, it was pretty special, especially as it was in France too.

“France was her favourite place to go so it was nice I did the race there because the holiday we had was our last big one there as a family. It was nice that all the family came to watch me too and it wasn’t just me, dad and Gareth there and being a very depressing time.”

Aimee said the family have since put the France home on the market. “Dad doesn’t like going on his own anymore,” she said.

County Times: Aimee in action on the bike in France Aimee in action on the bike in France (Image: None)

Jayne would undoubtedly have been proud of Aimee, no matter what. But she was surely beaming at seeing her daughter finish 17th out of 28 in her age category (25-29) and 63rd woman overall – completing her 112-mile “hilly” bike ride in 7 hours 6 minutes 30 seconds and the 26.2-mile marathon in 4h 53m 39s. Her total time of 12h 5m 4s didn’t include a 2.4-mile swim as organisers cancelled that section of the race due to bacteria in the lake.

What’s Aimee planning next? Does she want to do anything else?

“I’ve got the bug, definitely,” she said.

“It’s a weird feeling as you feel epic for about two days afterwards but then get major blues. I spent so long training so now it’s like ‘what’s next’.

“I feel a bit flat now so know I want to do a different Ironman. Gareth’s doing an Ironman in Italy next year so maybe I’ll do that with him.”

Aimee raised nearly £1,500 for Macmillan Cancer Support becoming an Ironman. You can find out more about her story and continue to donate at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Aim-e-Bowen1.