POTTING balls for 24 hours in a snooker marathon has raised more than £2,000 as a thank you to a charity which helped a Felixstowe couple and their baby.

POTTING balls for 24 hours in a snooker marathon has raised more than £2,000 as a thank you to a charity which helped a Felixstowe couple and their baby.

Little Harry Matthews' first year of life has been a nightmare which has seen him endure a series of major operations, and left him having to be fed through a pipe into an artery.

It meant his mum and dad Catherine and Adrian Matthews had to live for five months in lodgings in London while he was treated at Great Ormond Street.

But they would never have been able to have done that and remained close by his side without the help of the Sick Children's Trust, which put the family up free of charge in one of their boarding houses while Harry was being treated.

To thank the charity Mr Matthews and five friends took part in a snooker marathon at Felixstowe Snooker Club, Sea Road, playing match after match against each other without a break - sponsored by friends, family and work colleagues.

“We were absolutely knackered after the 24 hours and I still don't think I have recovered all my sleep - the only thing I know is that we were getting worse and worse at snooker the longer we played!” said Mr Matthews, of Orwell Road, Felixstowe.

“We feel great for having done it and got through it and it was a laugh. The main thing was to raise the money to help the Sick Children's Trust because having experienced their help ourselves, we know exactly how that money will be spent and how it will help other families like ours.

“There was no way we could have afforded to have stayed up in London without the trust's help and we didn't want to be separated from Harry.”

Mr Matthews, 32, a postman, said it was hoped to have raised between £2,000 and £2,500.

Harry, who celebrated his first birthday last month, a milestone his parents feared he would not see, was born with an enlarged bladder which almost immediately led to other problems.

Mrs Matthews, 26, a nurse, said he had a condition called hollow visceral myopathy and the only way he could feed was via a tube inserted straight into an artery to bypass his stomach - with food pumped in 12 hours each night.