A marathon rowing challenge raised �750 to help buy specialist beds for a children's charity on Friday.

Owain Seymour, from Wortwell, completed a marathon on a rowing machine at Harleston Leisure Centre to celebrate his 50th birthday and to raise money for East Anglia's Children's Hospices.

Mr Seymour, who started going to the gym last year and has been training hard for this challenge since April, managed the feat in 3 hours 10 mins 25 secs – well within the three-and-a-half-hour time he had set himself and a personal record.

'I'm amazed,' he said. 'The last hour was really tough but my wife, Marie, sat next to me and coached me. I slowed down near the end and her encouragement kept me going. You just have to keep working through the pain, then you find you click back into it and carry on.

'I was feeling very sore afterwards but the birthday celebrations helped – I think it'll take a week to fully recover.'

The idea for the charity effort came to him when he couldn't get tickets for the Olympics.

'I tried to get tickets for the opening ceremony but couldn't, so I decided to get fit and do a marathon myself. I can't run because of injuries to my legs, but I seem to have got quite good at the rowing machine so I decided to do it on that,' he added.

Mr Seymour, who is a capacity manager at Smurfit Kappa in Pulham St Mary, chose to row for EACH because a friend who works for the charity said they were trying to raise money for specialist �3,000 beds. The company contributed towards the final total raised.