A HEART ATTACK victim from York has been reunited with the air ambulance crew who saved his life.

Stuart Taylor, 37, of Rawcliffe, had just completed a moto-cross race at Armthorpe, near Doncaster, when he suffered a massive heart attack which left him fighting for his life.

Stuart, who has been riding competitively since he was six, said: "It came totally out of the blue. I had finished the first of three races and was chilling out by my van. The next thing I remember was waking up in hospital and my wife, Lindsey, telling me I had suffered a heart attack.

"I had no symptoms, nothing, and I was the fittest I had been for years, so it was a real shock because you don't expect something like that to happen, especially at my age."

St John's Ambulance staff re-started Stuart's heart, before the Yorkshire Air Ambulance team arrived and helped him start breathing spontaneously again.

Stuart, a sales executive at Barret Tubes, in Elvington, added: "I'm just disappointed I was unconscious for my first ever ride in a helicopter!"

Updated: 10:29 Friday, April 21, 2006