SIXTY years ago Jim Stewart was one of the heroes who helped liberate France from the Nazis.

But the Hampshire soldier, who risked his life on the Normandy beaches, was taken ill with a suspected heart attack during the 60th anniversary commemorations of the D-Day landings.

French doctors were so shocked to hear him worrying about how long he might have to wait for an operation if he returned to Britain, they offered him surgery there and then.

"You helped save us, now we will save your life," medics told the father of four.

A leading heart surgeon performed life-saving surgery on Mr Stewart when he suffered chest pains shortly after taking part in the veterans' parade and meeting the Queen at Arromanches on June 6.

Doctors at Centre Hopital Universitaire in Caen initially considered sending Mr Stewart, of Netley, home.

But cardiac surgeon Professor Andre Khayat insisted on treating him there and then, saying it was the least he could do.

He told how he gave special attention to the veteran's case, moving him to the top of the department's own five-week patient waiting list.

Prof Khayat said: "We gave him the chance to go back to England or be operated on here and gave him two or three days to think about it.

"He was a bit afraid of returning home because of the waiting lists. As he was here by invitation to our country, I said it was the least we could do for him

"I told my colleagues, 'This man came over here and put his life on the line for us and now we can give it back. That's what we are going to do'."

Prof Khayat, 62, the hospital's head of cardiac surgery, carried out a triple bypass on Mr Stewart.

He is spending the next fortnight at a rehabilitation centre near Caen, where the French authorities have granted permission for his 79-year-old wife Audrey to stay with him.

Mr Stewart's four children are full of praise for the way the French have looked after their parents, who travelled to France together for what they thought was going to be a four-day stay.

Daughter Jackie Chapman, 54, of Sholing, Southampton, went over with her husband Derrick, 58, to Normandy last week, along with her sister and two brothers, to visit her father in hospital.

She said: "All the nurses and doctors have really put themselves out. They were all really caring and friendly and asked us how we were all coping."

Mrs Chapman said her father had been looking forward to making the pilgrimage to Normandy.

She said: "He wanted to pay his respects to his friends that had died and he felt this could be the final time."

A spokesman for Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Anybody who was taken ill here would get the same treatment.

"Mr Stewart's fears about waiting times are more to do with perceptions rather than the reality."