FLAMBOYANT former football club chairman George Reynolds has survived a heart attack.

The 75-year-old businessman is back at work after spending four days in hospital after the health scare last month.

Mr Reynolds was taken ill at his penthouse home in the Neville’s Cross area of Durham City in the early hours and was taken to The James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, by ambulance.

The entrepreneur had a stent fitted in hospital and was allowed to return home.

Speaking from his office yesterday, the larger-than-life Mr Reynolds was characteristically upbeat about the scare.

He said: “It gave me a bit of a jolt at the time, but I am on top of the world now.”

Mr Reynolds, who was highprofile chairman of Darlington FC from 1999 to 2004 and presided over the club’s move from Feethams to its new sta- By Tony Kearney tony.kearney@nne.co.uk dium, said he had no history of heart trouble, but began to feel unwell at about 5.30am.

He said: “I think it was Sunderland beating Chelsea 3-0 which brought it on.

“I think the trip down the road was the scariest part of it all, because the ambulance went at some speed.

“I am not sorry it happened, because it has given me a jolt and now I am starting to watch what I eat and things like that.

“I have only been to the doctors seven times in my life and I have never missed a day’s work on the sick.”

Mr Reynolds praised medical staff who looked after him during his stay. He said: “I quite enjoyed it, to be honest.

The hospital was very, very good. They let me out of hospital at lunchtime on the Wednesday and I was back at my desk by 2pm.”

Mr Reynolds, who made his fortune from his business in Shildon, County Durham, was released from prison in 2006 after he served 14 months of a three-year jail sentence imposed for tax offences.