GRANDFATHER Dennis Clayton knew it was more than indigestion when he felt pains in his chest.

After half-an-hour the 78-year-old, of Surrenden Road, Cheriton, near Folkestone, rang the White House surgery and a receptionist told him to call 999 immediately.

Manager of the Folkestone and Lydd ambulance stations Richard de Coverly was first on the scene within two minutes and, together with Dover paramedics Nick Wakefield and Kevin McAuley, performed an ECG in the ambulance, which showed Mr Clayton was having a serious heart attack.

Then his heart gave up. A shock brought him back.

Retired restaurateur Mr Clayton said: “I remember the sirens on the way to the William Harvey, it was like being on an express train. Then I passed out. I didn’t know what had happened until I got to the hospital and came face to face with a doctor who told me I was a lucky man. I had been clinically dead for a couple of minutes.”

Mr de Coverly said: “If Dennis had ignored it and we hadn’t got there so quickly he wouldn’t be around now.

“He had that sense of impending doom that people with a heart attack get. He knew it wasn’t right. Dial 999 for any unexplained chest pain.

“We’re also pushing for public access to defibrillators, and seeing more of them in the big stores.

“If you do survive, for every minute you are having the heart attack, you lose 11 days off your life. Minutes really do count.”

Mr Clayton, who was home from hospital with partner June Parsons on Monday, a week after his ordeal, is now even more determined to get back on the golf course. After 50 years of smoking, he also threw his last packet away at the hospital and has not had a cigarette since.

He said: “I am so pleased with what the ambulance crew did. I can’t fault them. And the treatment I got at the hospital was brilliant.”