A MAN who ‘died’ after completing a motorcycle race has thanked the people who brought him back to life – twice.

Andrew Lupton, 50, a construction worker from Lancaster, had just finished the Barbon Hill Climb race when he suffered a massive heart attack and died.

“I crossed the line and just keeled over.

"My friend Nigel Critchley, who had finished the course earlier, told me afterwards that he had said: ‘It wasn’t as bad as that’ – and then he realised I wasn’t joking.

“As a former paramedic he recognised I had ‘died’ of a heart attack and immediately began cardiac resuscitation.

“Another biker (Tony Whittle) from the race who was a former policeman came to help as well and for 45 minutes they were pounding my chest to bring me back to life and then to keep me alive.”

He was ‘dead’ for two minutes and having been resuscitated once his heart stopped again and he was revived. The prompt actions of his friends saved him from any permanent ill effects such as brain damage.

Eventually, the air ambulance helicopter crew arrived and they took him to Royal Lancaster Infirmary for further treatment.

“It wasn’t painful at all - cutting my toenails is more painful,” said the lucky biker.

“One minute I was crossing the finishing line at 11am and the next thing I knew I was coming to in hospital at 4am the next day.”

“I was in the right place at the right time,” he said. “I can’t thank the people who saved me enough.”

He said former paramedic Mr Critchley, from Freckleton, and former policeman Mr Whittle, from Bingley, and the air ambulance crew all did a ‘marvellous job’.

Mr Whittle, who had only recently completed a cardiac resuscitation course, said: “I put him in the recovery position and moved his tongue and began the treatment.

“I was amazed when his chest suddenly started rising and falling again after being so still.

"We all felt really emotional with the relief that a dead man had come round and that the treatment really worked.”