A PRISONER from York has died in jail of a heart condition, only a fortnight before he was due to be released.

Ashley Done, 21, who was jailed in 2007 for supplying heroin, was determined to put his criminal past behind him and get a job, his sister, Charlene, said today.

“He had got his NVQ in ‘cheffing’ while inside, and had got training in gardening, and wanted to get a job and make money legally when he got out,” she said. “Everyone was praising him for the progress he had made inside."

She revealed that unknown to him and his family, he had been suffering from ischaemic heart disease.

A Prison Service spokesman said that Mr Done, formerly of Spalding Avenue, Clifton, died on December 28 at Deerbolt Jail in County Durham after complaining of dizziness and then falling unconscious.

“Staff and paramedics attended and attempted to resuscitate him, but Mr Done was pronounced dead at 2.15pm,” he said. “He died from natural causes.”

He said that, as with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman would conduct an investigation.

Mr Done was one of 35 people convicted as a result of Operation Holland, a massive police campaign against drug dealing on the streets of York in 2007 and 2008.

He was jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting six charges of supplying heroin.

Charlene said he had been released but then returned to prison after an incident in York, and was serving out his full sentence when he died.

She said her brother, a former Fulford School pupil, had been a keen footballer and tennis player when he was young, but had fallen in with the wrong crowd and his life had gone badly wrong.

She said he had a three-year-old son, Taylor, whom he had been looking forward to seeing on his release.

She said: “The family is really devastated at what has happened.

“Ashley had been taking part in a competition in the prison gym when he felt faint.

“A nurse checked him out, and he seemed okay and went back to his cell, but then he suffered from what he thought was really bad heartburn and was finding it hard to breathe before falling unconscious."

Charlene felt staff had done all they could to save him and she had no complaints.

The funeral will take place at 1.15pm on Tuesday at Clifton Parish Church.