PETER Walley says he'd be dead if it wasn't for his wife, Carol. The pain started when the retired management consultant from Darlington was looking forward to the trip of a lifetime to Australia to celebrate their silver wedding.

"I suddenly had a tremendous pain in the centre of my chest and the pains spread out along my arm. I was sweating and felt panicky," says Peter, now 59. Carol, who works at Darlington Memorial Hospital as a clerical assistant, realised within seconds that her husband and father of their two sons was having a major heart attack.

It came completely out of the blue. Peter, then 49, had no idea that a heart attack was brewing. There were no warning signs. But unknown to him, the arteries supplying his heart with blood had begun to fur up with disastrous consquences.

As he lay gasping for breath and gritting his teeth against the pain, Carol realised it would take too long to call an ambulance. Looking out of their front window she could see one her sons had just pulled up outside in his car. She told her other son to ring the hospital and warn them to get ready to treat a heart attack victim and helped get Peter into the car.

"I am sure I would have died without her quick-thinking, " says Peter, ten years on from that dramatic scene.

The family is also grateful to medical and nursing staff at Darlington Memorial Hospital for the way Peter was handled when he arrived.

"Within ten minutes of my attack they were giving me streptokinase, a drug which dissolves clots in the bloodstream. There's no doubt that they saved my life and for that I will always be thankful," says Peter, who faced another, even more serious, cardiac problem within a few years.

The family still teases him that all he could say at the hospital, as nurses fought to save his life, was that he had to be OK by Friday because he was going to Australia. "They said I wasn't going anywhere," laughs Peter.

The shock of suddenly being faced with one's own mortality and the feeling of fragility after such a serious heart attack took a lot of getting over. But after completing one of the first cardiac rehabilitation courses run by the South Durham Health Care Trust he was well enough to go back to work - albeit temporarily - and pick up the traces of his "normal" life.

Peter was so impressed by the dedication of health staff and the determination of other patients struggling to get fit, that he joined the recently formed Darlington Coronary Support Group.

"That was one of the best things I have ever done. It helped me meet hundreds of marvellous people. It has been an inspiration," says Peter, who now chairs the group. "When you have a heart attack, you get depressed, you lose confidence. You wonder why you have been selected for this trauma."

One of the best ways of overcoming such feelings is to join others who are going through the same process and those who have put these events behind them.

The Darlington group, which is just one of a network of coronary care support groups around the region, celebrates its tenth anniversary this summer and this Tuesday, past and present members are invited to attend a social event at the town's Dolphin leisure centre.

Literally thousands of people have passed through the ranks of the group as they have recovered from heart attacks, heart disease and angina, and Peter is hoping to see as many as possible on the big night.

"There are a lot of people who go to our exercise and swimming classes and then go back to work and get on with their lives, " says Peter. "That is fine and how it should be, but this is the time when we would like them to come back and see us."

Peter is constantly amazed at the enthusiasm of current group members, including many who have decided to stay in touch. "More than 100 are regularly in touch, some come for the social side of things, some come because they enjoy the activities - walking, yoga, swimming and exercise," says Peter.

One of the things Peter regrets is that his work on the committee of the Darlington group was interrupted when he was just getting into his stride.

While he made a good initial recovery after his coronary in 1992, his heart continued to cause concern.

He had to give up work and, as his illness became more debilitating, his doctors became increasingly convinced that the only way to save Peter's life was to carry out a transplant. "I was put on the list for a transplant in November 1996," he says.

As his health gradually failed, the wait went on. Months and months passed and he was approaching the first anniversary of being on the transplant waiting list when two traumatic events happened within a few days of each other. "I shall never forget those days. I got the call from the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle the day after Princess Diana was killed in a car crash," says Peter.

"I was in bed when the phone rang at 12.45pm the next day. By five past one I was in an ambulance heading up to Newcastle with blue lights flashing," Peter remembers.

As the ambulance sped north a battery of tests was being carried out, on Peter and on the donated heart.

"It could easily have been a false alarm. It is only at this late stage that they can tell whether the tissue match is a good one," says Peter, who is now a passionate advocate of a continental-style approach to donor cards, where it is assumed that you are a potential organ donor unless you opt out.

For the second time in his life, Peter had to rebuild his fitness.

Once again, the support of his friends and colleagues in the Darlington heart group played a vital role in his recovery.

After two major scares, Peter is determined to enjoy life. Apart from his work with the support group, he is a passionate gardener - orchids are his pride and joy - and he continues to be fascinated by stamp collecting, a boyhood hobby which proved useful when he was recovering from his transplant. "After my heart attack when I couldn't do very much that kept me sane," says Peter.

But his greatest pleasure is his growing family. The transplant has meant that Peter is now able to play with his two grandchildren, Rebecca, three, and Joseph, two.

"Without the transplant, I would never have known my grandchildren. That is something to think about, isn't it?," he says.

The reunion at the Dolphin Centre starts at 7.30pm on Tuesday, June 18. For more information about the Darlington Coronary Support Group contact (01325) 264936. You can visit the website at : www.communigate.co.uk/ne/dcsg