By Lisa Boardman

newsdesk@croydonadvertiser.co.uk

AN angler has reeled in his unhealthy lifestyle after a lakeside heart attack nearly cost him his life.

Ray Smee unknowingly suffered the heart attack during a fishing competition - but carried on to claim second prize.

But the near-death experience has spurred him on to eat more healthily and cut out bad habits.

Mr Smee, who works as a logistics manager for Simson’s Fisheries, in Redlands, Coulsdon, said: “Since the attack, I’ve had to be a very good boy.

“I’ve had to give up smoking, which has been really hard – I was smoking around 30 to 40 a day.

“McDonald’s meals have gone out the window, too. I’ve also had to cut my drinking and relax more.

“I also now take around 15 different tablets a day.”

The 55-year-old suffered the heart attack during a competition at Priory Farm Fishing Lakes, in Nutfield, Surrey.

But it did not stop him landing one of the best catches of his life –  100 carp, weighing a combined 214 pounds.

Mr Smee woke up at 2am on July 3, the day of the contest, feeling “a bit strange”.

“I had pain in my chest but I thought it was my ribs, which I had cracked a few weeks ago after a fall”, he said.

“A friend even suggested I might be having a heart attack but I didn’t believe him because I wasn’t in that much pain.”

After the competition, Mr Smee, who lives in Merstham, drove to East Surrey Hospital, in Redhill, where tests revealed he had suffered the heart attack.

Mr Smee is now out of hospital after undergoing two operations.

And luckily for him his favourite hobby is just what the doctor ordered - and he even entered a fishing competition the day after he got out of hospital.