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Training for your first triathlon with your mother-in-law may not at first sound like the perfect situation but for Glen Bradley and Denise Garnham, who have worked together for three years, it has been a lot of fun.

Glen, 25, and Denise, 49, both work at Haverhill Leisure Centre and have been training together for weeks to take part in the gruelling Elveden Estate’s Tear Jerker Triathlon.

The event, billed as the toughest triathlon in the region, is named to reflect both the trying nature of the course and Elveden’s position as a leading onion grower and takes place at the end of the month.

The challenging course, this year in aid of the East Anglian Air Ambulance, comprises a 750m swim in the reservoir, 25km mountain bike ride through the sandy Breckland soils and 5km run through the forest.

For Glen, who is married to Denise’s daughter Sally who works in the Centre’s Kid City, training for event was an interesting way to get to know his mother-in-law better.

He said: “The nice bit about training is if you’re swimming together in the pool you don’t have to talk. No, seriously we get on really well and we have been working together as duty managers at the centre for three years so we are a really good team. There are a lot of family members who work together at the centre as it’s a great place to work.”

The pair have been in training for weeks but are particularly worried about the swimming which is the weakest event for both of them. They have been swimming once a week and seeking advice from the centre’s swimming experts to rise to the challenge.

Denise, who two years ago did a half-marathon, said: “It has been great fun and we have got to know each other a little better. One swimming session we decided to try the butterfly stroke which had us in fits of laughter. But I managed a whole length of butterfly and I didn’t know I had it in me.”

The pair hope to complete the triathlon in two-and-a-half to three hours and their family will be there to cheer them on.

Denise and Glen, who both live in Haverhill, are also raising money through their triathlon for the Mental Health Foundation which aims to improve the lives of those with mental health problems or learning disabilities. Glen’s grandfather has Alzheimers Disease and he wanted to raise awareness of this and other mental illness.