A RUGBY club chairman who suffered a heart attack has spoken of his "miraculous" recovery after his wife was told by doctors that he was unlikely to survive.

Neil Gillan needed 45 minutes of CPR and eight electric shocks from a defibrillator before paramedics managed to restart his heart when he collapsed after a short bike ride.

The 50-year-old chairman of Cleckheaton Rugby Union Club then had a second heart attack in hospital and needed another three electric shocks to get his heart started a second time.

He then had to be transferred to Leeds General Infirmary for intensive care and emergency surgery to unblock an artery.

His wife Helen was then told that it was likely that her husband had suffered brain damage during the time his heart was stopped and that he would not survive.

Miraculously, he suddenly awoke in hospital two days after the heart attack and asked staff for a glass of water.

Mr Gillan, of Cleckheaton, has now thanked a couple who began CPR, a first responder paramedic who kept him alive and medics at both hospitals.

"It pretty much looked like I wasn't going to survive," said Mr Gillan.

"My family was told that it was likely that I was brain stem dead. They didn't think I was going to wake up."

But just four hours after that bleak prognosis, Mr Gillan was on the mend.

"I just sat up and took off my oxygen mask and asked for a glass of water."

His wife and daughter were shocked and relieved to see his progress.

He is now recovering at home with the help of his wife Helen and their daughter Emily, 20.

Medics have told him that his heart attack was brought on by a coronary artery which had become "furred up" which may have had a genetic cause, although they do not know for sure the root cause.

Doctors suggested that his lifetime of fitness work, including rugby and boxing, helped him survive a heart attack that would have killed most people.

"I'm very lucky to be here but unlucky to have had the heart attack. I want to thank the first responder, Mark Kilburn, who carried out the CPR."

Mr Gillan also thanked two bowlers at Royds Park, Cleckheaton, who started CPR and phoned 999 when he collapsed following a lunchtime bike ride on the Spen Valley Greenway on Thursday, July 16.

"I stopped at the bowling green because I was feeling unwell. I asked for a glass of water and then I collapsed.

"I had CPR for 45 minutes - they were struggling to get me going. They used the defibrillator eight times. I was told that every minute in cardiac arrest, your chance of survival goes down by 10 per cent.

"It's a little bit of a minor miracle by all accounts. I feel better now and am definitely on the up and on the mend."

Over the coming days Mr Gillan will be resting and will then begin rehabilitation which involves walking and eventually exercise classes to strengthen his heart.

His wife Helen said: "It has been life changing and surreal. We are very relieved and glad to have him back home. We had planned his funeral, my daughter and I; there was nothing else we could do. There was a rollercoaster of emotions."

Mrs Gillan had initially thought she had lost her husband.

"I was working out how I would cope without him. I was resigned to it. What has happened will probably hit me when I have slowed down a little bit and stop charging around.

"I am being very matter-of-fact about it as I have already done all my crying."