MEET the amazing boy who's full of life after "death".
Joe Leadbeater, 13, technically "died" two or three times.
Now he's become one of the youngest heart patients around to get a pacemaker.
He collapsed at a school sports day without warning - he'd never had any sign of heart trouble.
But medics later confirmed his heart had actually stopped beating at least twice as he lay unconscious on the playing field at King James's School, Almondbury.
Classmates crowded round, fearing the worst - but tough Joe battled back to life before their eyes.
He said today: "It's sort of cool to say I died three times. Scary, but cool."
Joe spent a week in Leeds General Infirmary, under- going tests before specialist consultants decided he needed a pacemaker.
Only about 300 UK children are fitted with a pacemaker each year - compared with many thousands of middle-aged heart patients.
Joe, a pupil of King James's, said: "My pacemaker is less than a centimetre thick and it's made of titanium.
"I can feel it if I touch my chest, or lean on it, but otherwise I don't know it's there."
But it's keeping the vital rhythm for him day and night.
Its aim is to prevent his heart rate dipping to the dangerously low levels of less than 35 beats per minute that it had been registering at the time of his near-death experience.
And latest tests have shown Joe's heart wouldn't have been working properly unaided.
His father David says: "The pacemaker has saved Joe's life, full stop. He wouldn't be here without it."
No-one really knows why Joe's heart was beating so slowly. Athletes' heart rates are often slow - and Joe has always been fit and sporty.
After a long ban on physical exertion, he is now able to run and play sports again.
The Almondbury family today paid tribute to staff at Leeds General Infirmary, where he was treated.
Joe's head teacher, Mr Robert Lamb, praised his courage. He said: "Joe has been through so much and everyone really admires him. He's on the school council and doesn't let the fact he's got a pacemaker stand in the way of anything."
Of the day when Joe was rushed to hospital, he said: "I panicked. You just don't expect something like that to happen."
