AN amateur footballer whose life was changed in a split-second after suffering a potentially fatal brain aneurism has raised more than £1,000 for the unit that helped him.

Mick Borwick, of Blackpool Road, Ashton, ran a 10km-race through the streets of Preston on June 13 to raise cash for the Neuro Rehabilitation Unit, Sharoe Green Hospital.

After suffering the aneurism last August, a blister-like growth in the blood vessels, Mr Bowick, 49, had to be taught how to talk and basic social skills like road safety awareness.

Now, thanks to medical staff and the support of partner, Ann Bennett, the former Alstom's worker is on the road to making a full recovery.

"It was really tough. I couldn't have done it without Ann and the nurses. Sometimes I just wanted to die but they kept supporting me," said the father-of-two.

Prior to his illness, Mr Borwick played in various amateur leagues, scoring hundreds of goals during his 30-year soccer career, including 46 for Sumners Football Club, Deepdale, in 1989.

When tragedy struck he was on the pitch at Vernon-Carus' football field, Factory Lane, Penwortham, at a farewell party for redundant employees of Preston's Alstom plant.

"I walked off the pitch because I felt really strange," he said. "I got a really bad headache and sat in the dug out. It was indescribable."

Mr Borwick, whose son-in-law is former PNE goalkeeper, David Lucas, was temporarily paralysed after a nine-hour operation to clip the blood vessel in his head.

"Then one day I managed to move my hand and eventually I got the feeling back," he said.

Some of the money raised has been used to re-cover a pool table at the unit, and other equipment to help patients' concentration, will be bought with the remaining cash.