Science fiction fans heading to Sheerness tomorrow (Saturday) for the Sheppey Takeover will be raising funds for London's King's College Hospital.

Star Wars Stormtroopers and Doctor Who's Tardis will be 'taking over' the model railway track at Barton's Point Coastal Park from 11am to 5pm.

But what many visitors won't know is that organiser Robert Dawson is alive today thanks to help from a real-life doctor.

Mr Dawson, 70, the chairman of the Sheppey Model Engineering Society, had just wrapped up his club's annual meeting on Monday, August 6, last year when he collapsed in agony. The main artery from his heart had burst.

He recalled: "It felt like I'd been hit in the chest with a cricket bat.

"I was sitting on a bench on the platform with a cup of tea when I had this really bad pain. After that, everything is a blank."

The Kent Air Ambulance helicopter was scrambled and Mr Dawson, a father-of-four and a grandad, ended up at King's College Hospital, London, where surgeons performed an emergency operation to rebuild his heart.

He also caught pneumonia, was put on kidney dialysis and his heart flat-lined. "I was pretty rough," he admitted.

Unknown to him, he spent a week in a coma.

He said: "I had tubes coming out of everywhere. There were five in my chest, four pacing lines, 21 intravenous lines and four adrenalin pumps. Staff told me later I was lucky to be alive. Normally, when your aorta bursts, you die."

Surgeons used veins from both his legs in the operation to fit an artificial aortic valve.

He said: "I can walk but I get exhausted quickly. But I realise I am a very lucky man which is why proceeds from Saturday will go towards King's College's new critical care department in the coronary unit.

"People knock the NHS but I can't criticise them at all. They were there for me."

Attractions on Saturday include Doctor's Who's old yellow car Bessie, a Tardis console created by Don Morphey, Imperial Outlanders, Cos Play, actors, comic book designers and Spider Man. Admission, unlike last year, is free.

Read more: Isle of Sheppey stories here.