Teamwork, friendship and a refusal to give up got Sharn McNeil through the greatest challenge of her life - completing the Cairns Ironman endurance race almost a year after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease. 

Sharn, from Bulli, south of Sydney, crossed Ironman’s finish line at Cairns Esplanade in the the darkness of Sunday night, 16 hours and 24 minutes after starting. 

Cold rains that had plagued the entire event miraculously stopped for a few minutes as she finished.

Sharn now holds an Ironman medal, something she has battled every second for since her diagnosis last year. 

She took part in every leg of the race with the assistance of longtime friend and training buddy Craig Gruber. 

For the bike leg that came through Port Douglas, Sharn rode a specially modified recumbent bicycle attached to Craig’s bike. 

Sharn’s bicycle had its own gears, meaning she contributed more than her fair share of propulsion despite her condition, helping push the combined bikes to the top of the Rex Lookout after a flat tire. 

Craig also towed Sharn behind him in a kayak for the swim leg and gave her the odd push in a wheelchair during the on-foot segment. 

Craig and Sharn were part of an eight-person team called Shining For Sharn, which is also represented by a Facebook page and website dedicated to fundraising for Sharn’s treatnment. 

Speaking to the Newsport today Sharn said she was ‘a bit sore’ but still hadn’t taken off her Ironman medal.

“It was always my dream to do a full Ironman,” she said.

“The rain was annoying but we kept our eye on the prize and we made it,  even though were were right on the wire and they were a few minute away from closing some of the cutoff points through the race.

“It was really a team effort, that’s what got us through, doing it as a team.”

Craig said Sharn had put in invaluable effort during the race. 

“We had a flat just before the Rex lookout at the base of the hill - no-one told me because they knew I would want to stop to fix it, but Sharn pushed us to the top of that hill and we fixed it up there, all in the nonstop rain,” he said.

Sharn’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neurone disease or Lou Gherig’s disease in the United States, causes muscle weakness and atrophy due to neuron breakdown. 

It is the same disease that affects renowned physicist Stephen Hawking.

Most people diagnosed are over the age of 60, but Sharn is just 31.

A longtime triathlon enthusiast, Sharn had plans to take part in the Port Macquarie Ironman last year but was stopped by the onset of her symptoms. 

She was diagnosed in July last year, just under a year after taking part in the 2012 Cairns Ironman 70.3.

Sharn said she and the team have been so focused on the Ironman that they haven’t put much thought to what to do next, but that she is open to other competitions in the future.