A KNUTSFORD pensioner has set off on the journey of a lifetime as he begins a ‘spiritual’ hike of more than 800km across Spain’s rugged landscape.

Mike Goddard, a former TV producer, comedian and writer who now lives in Winstanley House, has embarked upon a 10-week expedition following Spain’s famous Camino trail, starting at San Sebastian and finishing at Fisterra, the most Western point of Europe.

The 73-year-old, who has previously worked alongside Cliff Richard and British comedy legend, Frankie Howerd, told the Guardian how he decided to seize the day after he medically died following a heart attack in 2011.

“I went to see ‘Hair’ the musical in New York City, I collapsed and woke up in Bellevue Hospital,” he said. “It cost me all my money.

“It was £38,000 at the hospital and I couldn’t come home for six weeks so when I left the hospital, I had to stay in a hotel. Then I had to fly back first class because I needed oxygen.”

Mike, who was living in Barcelona at the time, then suffered from deep vein thrombosis in 2012 and was in a coma for ‘weeks’.

“When I got back to England, I had 28p, after 50 years of work,” he added. “I had to go and stay with my sister.

“My reaction to all of this was, ‘I have to get out and get away, to keep my mind and my body active.

“I am very lucky to be alive. I was dead, you can’t get worse than that. Something like that changes your attitude.”

Since his recovery, Mike has begun walking. Sometimes he walks around the town or from his home to the Tatton Park mansion and some days he walks to Alderley Edge or Wilmslow and gets the bus back- all to train for the Camino trail.

He has received financial help from friends, including Peter Murray of Pulse of Perfumery in Princess Street.

Although Mike is not religious, he does hope that the experience will be a spiritual one.

“Who knows what could happen,” he added. “I might fall in love, I might win the lottery. I might fall off a mountain.”