One of the leading local athletes of the 1980s has returned to the sport after undergoing a successful heart transplant.

Alan Schofield, from Briercliffe, starred for Burnley Athletic Club, Blackburn Harriers and Clayton-le-Moors Harriers in his heyday although the 50-year-old nowadays isn’t attached to a club.

In his teens he was a track athlete specialising in the 400m, 800m, 1500m and 3000m events before graduating to road and fell as an adult.

In 1987, he was advised by a doctor never to run again after collapsing while out running and suffering a cardiac arrest.

However, he soon realised that he could still compete at a high level and felt that his illness was temporary and had passed.

But, despite running on in competitions, he continued to get into serious difficulties, with his heart rate getting out of control on occassions.

The same problems re-occurred more frequently and he was forced to retire after the 1989 Blackpool Windmill Half Marathon.

Initially he was prescribed beta-blockers, but he collapsed during a five-a-side football match at Hyndburn Leisure Centre and following another incident in a cricket match spent a week in a coma and temporarily lost his memory.

His life was only saved by a team-mate who gave him the kiss of life.

In 1992 he had a defibrillator implanted and over the next 13 years he had three replacements but still suffered heart failure in 2002 and was on the list for a transplant for 18 months before his operation in January 2005.

Six months after his operation he tried running, and with his wife and daughter entered a one mile fun run for a cancer charity at Towneley Park in Burnley.

Alan had to walk the last quarter, but it was still the furthest he had run since 1990. In 2008 he did his first real road race, the Manchester 10K which took him 58 minutes, and he has entered the last four British Transplant Games.

At the 2008 Games in Sheffield he won a bronze medal in the 200m.

Over the last few months he has been seen at several local events, most recently at the Blackburn Winter Warmer 10K Road Race where he clocked around 65 minutes over one of the tougher courses in the calendar.

He is still ambitious and hopes to run the 1500m in the British Transplant Games this year, and to qualify for the European Heart and Lung Transplant Games in Sweden.

His next outing is on Sunday when he will be supporting Andy O’Sullivan’s race at Littleborough in memory of kidney transplant athlete Lynn Hindle.