A man about to run the New York Marathon for charity broke his back when a balcony railing gave way at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences.

It is understood the 27-year-old guest worker was at a friend's birthday party at a staff apartment building on Saturday. Clinton Madgwick was just a week away from running his first marathon in the New York City Marathon to raise funds for underprivileged children in his homeland of South Africa.

The funds were to be donated to the PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative, which he used to coordinate as a former employee. According to friends, Mr. Madgwick leaned back on a wooden railing as he watched a barbecue grill and it gave way.

He was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital the next day. In the past few days Mr. Madgwick has undergone several operations on his broken lumber vertebrae. Friends say he is "in a lot of pain" but doctors hope he will be able to walk again within a year.

BIOS chief operating officer William Welton said yesterday: "I can confirm unfortunately there was an accident last Saturday involving a visitor to BIOS. We are very sorry that it happened. We hope that he makes a very fast recovery."