Doctors set new world record in charity row

A Surrey doctor says he is "utterly broken" after he and a team of rowers travelled one million metres on a static machine in world record time.

Anaesthetist Gihan Ganesh and a team of rowers including several doctors from Frimley Park Hospital took it in turns to row non-stop for nearly 60 hours at London's Paddington Station.

The group of 12 rowers have now smashed the world record after beginning on 2 June, raising £169,000 for a Hampshire-based charity in the process.

The fundraiser aimed to raise £1,000 for every day that Mr Ganesh's daughter was treated for after being diagnosed with a rare tumour when she was a year old.

Mr Ganesh said: "We are utterly, utterly broken but it was worth it.

"We did really well as a team and this is our way of saying thank you."

The Thanks A Million challenge team each took it in turns to row for a minute at a time on a static rowing machine before swapping.

Mr Ganesh said that each member of the team had only been able to get around two to three hours of sleep during the challenge.

Having been set a target of completing the challenge in 62 hours, the team hit the one million metre mark in 59 hours.

The challenge has so far raised around £60,000 with a charity ball yet to come, Mr Ganesh said.

The money will be used to help the Momentum in Fitness charity provide exercise therapy at the Piam Brown children's cancer ward of Southampton General Hospital.

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