Less than seven months ago, sports physiotherapist Ian Minton was staring death in the face.

Now he is looking forward to a life mixing with celebrities as physio to a charity football team.

Ian, 37, was a practising sports physiotherapist with an office at the Stratton Road Bentley Centre seven months ago when he suffered what he thought at the time was a heart attack.

He was actually suffering from a medical condition called pericarditis, which is an inflammation of the smooth membrane that surrounds the heart.

He was in intensive care for three days and stayed at Princess Margaret Hospital, Swindon, for three weeks.

"I thought I was going to die," he said.

"Then I had no idea how long I would be ill for, so I had to stop the lease I had on the office in the Bentley Centre."

Ian had just started to get things back together and was feeling strong enough to start practising as a physio again, when he got a call from Jaquie Sheppard, the corporate fundraiser for the NSPCC in Swindon.

Jaquie had been one of Ian's patients and she was looking for someone to act as a physiotherapist for a game between former Swindon Town players and the Jess Conrad Showbiz Team, held at the County Ground last month.

At the game Ian was called on to use his expertise to treat two of the players in the Jess Conrad team, including Patrick Robinson, who played Ash in the BBC's hospital drama Casualty.

After the game, when Ian was having a drink with the likes of TV's Have I Got News For You host Angus Deayton, sports commentator Jim Rosenthal and Anthea Turner's husband Grant Bovey, he was asked if he would like to be the team's physiotherapist on a permanent basis.

Ian said: "I was really pleased to be asked to do it.

"I will be with them every other Sunday and, although I won't be getting paid for it, it will be a great thing to do.

"Hopefully it will also get my name a little more well known and it could lead to more work."

With the publicity he is likely to get from the work he does with the celebrity team, he hopes to be able to find another base in Swindon, where he can practice his remedial massage and sports physiotherapy.

And with the contacts he is likely to make in the world of showbiz, he could be treating all kinds of high profile stars in the future.