A stone mason who thought he’d never walk again after being left paralysed from the waist down in a work accident has completed his own adapted triathlon event.<br /><br />Martyn Piercy, 47, who broke his back and neck in 2015, spent three months training for his cycle, walk and swim challenge with his cousin Stephen Piercy, 42.<br /><br />He began at 8am with a 100m walk in callipers across his back garden while Stephen set off on a six-mile run, which they both completed in roughly an hour.<br /><br />The pair then took to the road for a 15-mile cycle ride before heading over to their local pool, where Martyn completed a 500m swim while Stephen swam 750m.<br /><br />Friends and family were present to roar the pair on when they finished the final section of their gruelling four-hour physical event in Thirsk, North Yorks., on Sunday.<br /><br />Martyn said the toughest part of the challenge was his time in the water after his right leg - which he can normally use to kick for 250m - froze up soon after he began.<br /><br />He said: “It was a 17m long pool, and my legs hardly had any kick quite early on in the process. I was just using my upper body.<br /><br />“When I walk, my legs get heavy and tired, and when I was on the bike, my arms get tired, so putting that together, I had to work hard on the swim.<br /><br />“But you shouldn’t do this if you don’t want to be challenged.”<br /><br />Cricket-mad Martyn, who previously played for Yorkshire's under-19 team, was flown to hospital by air ambulance following his freak workplace incident in August 2015.<br /><br />And despite undergoing emergency nine-hour surgery, he sadly still lost mobility in the lower part of his body.<br /><br />He came up with the idea for the event with his cousin and former batting partner Stephen before they set about creating the unique course near his home.<br /><br />And Martyn said it was “special” for the pair to complete their swim in an almost identical time while raising almost £5,000 for Yorkshire Air Ambulance.<br /><br />He said: “We finished the last length together, within a second of each other, which worked out really well.<br /><br />“We’ve been partners for ten years, so it was quite special to complete it together. We were used to cricket balls flying over our heads at 90 miles an hour.<br /><br />“It’s fantastic to give away the money too. It’s the first time I have done something testing for charity. We think it will go over £5,000.<br /><br />“The Yorkshire Air Ambulance costs £12,000 a day to keep up and running, so hopefully this will go a long way to helping somebody else."<br /><br />Martyn was an avid footballer and cricketer, having played with the XII at Yorkshire for a stint before going on to have success with his town’s team prior to his accident.<br /><br />And he said these interests had helped him to keep up his physiotherapy over the last eight years, which he sees as his full-time occupation as he spends nearly five hours a day devoted to it.<br /><br />He went on: “That’s helped me through. I travel all over the country for physiotherapy, and I can now ‘sit down ski’, which I love. It feels like a go-kart. I also do archery.
