An amateur footballer has thanked his teammates who saved his life after he suffered a heart attack - during a game.
John Chamberlain's pals Bethanne Billian, 32, and David Miller, 43, thought he was joking at first when he collapsed after being subbed off and made a 'snoring noise'.
And they sprung into action and performed CPR on him and used a defibrillator when they realised the noise was a 'death rattle' he'd actually stopped breathing.
John, 53, said: "At that moment in time, I was dead and I'm not breathing.
"They just brought me back to life. I'm humbled and gobsmacked that they've been able to do it.
"It's just amazing it happened there and they got me back to life."
Father-of-one John had already scored four goals in the first half of the match when he felt his chest get tight and he started to go dizzy.
As he was substituted eight minutes into the second half, John felt his chest was tight, he was out of breath and had come over dizzy.
He then sat down and blacked out completely before his pals stepped in.
Widower John, whose wife Karen, 52, died of cancer last September, added: "I'm a first aider myself and you hear that quite a lot of the time, you can't get them back.
"Whether you try or not, sometimes you fail and that's just the way it is - people are dead and they don't come back.
"Apparently this was quite a hard CPR and they thought they was going to lose me at one point.
"Honestly I'm so humbled and thankful for them bringing me back."
John was rushed to Blackpool Victoria Hospital and had a stent fitted in his heart less than four hours after he had the heart attack.
He was discharged six days later - on April 10 - and doctors said it was caused by a blood clot in his heart.
John said in the week before the incident, he 'started to feel a bit of chest tightness' but he put that down to 'being really unfit.'
And he credits playing the match with saving his life because if the heart attack had happened anywhere else, he would've 'been dead' as 'nobody would have found' him.
John, who runs football league Not Match Fit, added: "I started to feel a bit of chest tightness going up and down stairs, but I just put that down to being really unfit.
"I used to play football Monday, Wednesday and Thursday but now I only play Thursday so I thought my fitness was just getting terrible.
"Apart from me feeling unfit, there was nothing pointing to it whatsoever.
"If it happened at home, I would be dead because there's nobody in the house with me and nobody would have found me.
"I would be sprawled over until somebody found me.
"If I would have been driving to football in my car or if it happened any other place, then I would have been dead.
"But it was at football where we've got nurses, first aiders and people who are confident enough to do CPR on me and know to do it straight away."
David has said that he was in 'complete and utter relief' when John woke back up again and said he now feels 'really glad' that he survived.
He said: "I just felt complete and utter relief once he was talking to us as we managed to get him back to life quite literally.
"It's been quite strange because I'm overjoyed that he's still there but it's quite traumatic so it's been really tricky.
"I'm just really glad that he survived.
"I think he's a very lucky lad - I think if he hadn't had gone to football then he would have died."
