A marathon stint on a rowing machine to raise funds for a maternity unit has put a personal trainer from Dunmow, into the world top 10 for his age group.

Powered by water, jelly babies and sliced Mars bars, Terry Haywood rowed for over three hours.

He burned over 2,500 calories – the recommended daily intake for an adult.

Fitness fanatic Terry rowed for three hours, eight minutes, covering 42,195 metres (26.2 miles).

The session was on a Concept 2 rowing machine at Dunmow Leisure Centre.

He also sailed past his fundraising target of £2,000 and hopes to have raised over £3,000 by the time all donations are in for the WJC Birthing Centre at St Michael’s Hospital in Braintree, where the delivery is led by midwives.

Terry first rowed a marathon five years ago with no preparation.

He said: “It was the hardest thing I’d ever done, and I said I’m never doing that again. I had a blister the size of a 50 pence piece on my right buttock and I’ve still got the scar.”

But after encouragement from his wife Lindsay, a midwife at WJC, and the promise of £500 sponsorship from a client, Terry decided to take up the challenge.

“I’d toyed with the idea and then remembered how horrible it was. But my wife said how about if you did it for a good cause. And I couldn’t think of a better cause than raising money for the birthing unit.”

With Lindsay, an experienced marathon runner, directing his training, Terry covered over 500,000 metres in the build up to the big day.

“I didn’t quite get the time I wanted, I wanted to get under three hours. But that puts me eighth in the world for my age so I’m not too disappointed.”

Terry is planning another rowing marathon in the spring and says he would like to see how many burpees (a squat thrust into a star jump) he could do in an hour.

“I did a burpee mile on an athletics track and did between 900 and 1,000 burpees in that time.”

He doesn’t claim to be the fittest person on the country.

“There’s always someone fitter but I like to think I’m reasonably fit.

“I work at it pretty much every day and I have done since I was 12 years old.”