A Horwich runner miraculously walked away after a terrifying parascending accident in Mexico.

Chris Lyons, aged 42, crashed onto the beach from 50ft when the rope attached to his parachute went slack.

But the plucky runner with Horwich RMI Harriers has bounced back despite suffering a compressed spine.

He has already taken part in one race and hopes to find the form which has led him to three gold medals in the over 40s British Championship.

It was the last day of a £700 all-inclusive two-week holiday in Puerto Vallarta resort on Mexico's west coast when the horrifying accident happened.

Chris said: "Two people on the beach were trying to put the parachute on me but they were putting it on upside down.

"I told them it was the wrong way but they wouldn't take it. I should have walked off there and then. Finally the bloke from the speedboat swam to us.

"He spoke English and went mad at the other two.

"But by the time he had swum back to the boat, the rope had developed a loop in it.

"When he set off, instead of going straight up, I took off diagonally, went upside down, and came down at the same angle.

"I landed with a crash.

"It could have killed me."

Chris, who runs a plumbing business, said he lay winded for five minutes while the parascending firm recovered their paracute and then made off without helping.

Eventually his wife Carol helped him to his feet and he managed to walk the half-mile back to the hotel.

At the airport, he found he was in too much pain to carry even the hand luggage.

He was sent back to the resort to be admitted to a hospital and his wife had to fly home with their four sons, aged between nine and 15.

Chris, who lives in Mawdesley, near Ormskirk, spent two-and-a-half days in the hospital.

It had so few facilities they had to make 14 X-rays along his spine using a dentists' machine.

Eventually he was flown back to Gatwick and given a taxi ride home - with his insurance company picking up the bill.

He said: "It felt like a nightmare. I was completely on my own without being able to speak the language in what was more of a chop shop hospital than anything else.

"But I'm so relieved to be able to run again. It could have been a lot worse."

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