He is gaunt and frail but the smile that spreads over his face as he looks at his wife says it all – I am happy to be home in Bradford.

Andrew Ross’s life hung in the balance after he suffered a massive heart attack while on his son Mark’s stag-do in Prague.

Emergency surgery to put a stent in a heart valve saved the 50-year-old’s life but he spent a month in a coma in a hospital in the Czech Republic capital after his insurers initially refused to pay out £10,000 for an air ambulance to bring him home.

However, after being challenged by his wife Marina, 44, of Dunnington Walk, Woodside, and having the case highlighted in the Telegraph and Argus, the insurance company relented and agreed to pay the claim.

And on September 5 an air ambulance brought him home to Bradford. He was admitted to the intensive care unit at Bradford Royal Infirmary where he spent ten days.

He has now recovered sufficiently to be cared for on ward 22 – the coronary care unit – and yesterday he was well enough to speak to the T&A, with Marina at his side, as she has been since he came home.

In a weak voice he said he could never thank his wife enough for her help and admitted he could remember little of what happened. His thoughts on the insurance company are unprintable.

“I remember the hotel room and medics taking me in the ambulance, but not being in hospital,” said Mr Ross, who has lost three stone in weight. “The first memory after that is waking up in BRI.”

Mrs Ross said she had mixed emotions when she first saw her husband. “It was great to see him home but he was extremely poorly,” she said. “We just had to take one day at a time and doctors said they would do what they could.

“I couldn’t believe it when he was well enough to come out of ICU. I can see a physical difference in him every day. I can’t believe how far he has come.

“At the minute doctors at taking it one step at a time but the cardiologist is surprised how well he is doing. He will have to go to St Luke’s to neurology for rehabilitation but we are getting there slowly but surely.”

Mrs Ross said she had been overwhelmed by the support of family and friends and strangers. That support culminated on Sunday when more than 30 people joined her for a sponsored walk from Valley Parade to the Fleece Pub in Bingley raising £647 which will go to BRI’s ward 22 and intensive care unit and the British Heart Foundation.

“People go on about the NHS but you can’t knock it,” she said. “In here (ward 22) nothing is too much trouble. They care and talk to us. They are absolutely phenomenal.”