It might end up killing him but Sean Doyle just can’t stop running.

The super-fit athlete who almost died after suffering a heart attack at the start of a popular run has started running again.

In mid-May, Mr Doyle’s life hung by a thread as medics battled desperately to save him in Greenhead Park.

At one point he says “I was dead” and he went on to suffer a second heart attack in hospital.

But despite all the trauma the married father-of-two from Brockholes has taken up the sport again.

On Sunday, the 45-year-old member of Holmfirth Harriers who has run four marathons and who completed the Blackpool Marathon earlier this year in a personal best time of 3hrs 29mins 38 secs, put on his running vest once more.

And with his nine-year-old son Oliver at his side the duo completed Kirkwood Hospice’s second Trail Run at the Leeds Road Sports Complex.

Sean said: “It has been a tough few weeks but I have come through it.

“It was an emotional time, everybody thinks I’m mad but it’s a matter of balancing the risks.

“Some people think I am selfish and my wife Helen is a bit reserved about the comeback but it is what I like doing.

“I have always been a sporty guy and used to play a lot of football and tennis. I started running nine to 10 years ago after I retired from football.

“But I’ve listened to what my doctors have told me and that’s no more personal bests, no more marathons and just running for fun.

“I mustn’t let my heartbeat go above 140 beats per minute and when I exercise I wear a heart monitor.”

He relived the dramatic moments when he suffered the heart attack in May at Greenhead Park.

“The chances of my survival were just 10%. At one point I was dead and I had to have six goes on the defibrillator.

“The woman operating it said I was the first person in 15 years to come round after six goes. Apparently after four goes that’s normally it.

“And when I was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary I suffered a second heart attack and was put into an induced coma for 36 hours.

“The same equipment which saved Bolton Wanderers player Fabrice Muamba’s life, (when he collapsed during an FA Cup tie against Tottenham in March last year), saved mine too. It kept me alive for two crucial hours.”

Since his collapse he has been back to Greenhead Park to exorcise the ghosts of that dark day.

At the end of July he walked round in 50 minutes and since then he has run round twice.

“It was a bit of an eerie feeling,” he said, “especially where those steps are near the cafe where I collapsed. But it was important that I went back.”

Sean said he would like to thank two of the people who helped save his life in the immediate aftermath of his first heart attack.

They are Dinah Coogan, a nurse and Dr Emma Spenser his family GP.

In addition he is grateful to Simon Edwards, a fellow Harrier who travelled with him in the ambulance from Greenhead Park to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.