A FATHER who was taking part in a charity bike ride in memory of his son who died tragically, fell over a 12ft parapet after suffering from cardiac arrhythmia caused by an enlarged heart, a coroner heard.

Businessman Robert Bright had been cycling with his older son to retrace the route his tragic son George had been forced to give up due to injury, when he collapsed and died in the south of France.

The inquest heard that the 58-year-old toppled 12ft over a concrete wall and was found dead by his son Peter as they rode together in Nice. They had set out together from Mr Bright's home in Swindon and had got to the French Riviera via Calais.

Peter Bright, whose statement was read out at the inquest, said he had been cycling in front of his father when he suddenly heard him shout “stop!” and heard a loud noise of metal scraping on concrete.

He added that as he span around to see what was happening, he saw to his horror that his father had lost his balance and was tipping over the parapet.

In the horrifying moments that followed, he said that his father, who lived in Nine Elms, had fallen for several seconds before he struck the hard ground below.

By the time Peter and the other cyclists had taken to reach his injured father, blood was pooling around his head and mouth and a nearby resident was calling the local paramedics from the scene at Ancien Chemin Prive De La Darse in Villefranche-sur-mer, Nice.

Peter's statement read: “As far as I was aware my father had no previous medical conditions. He had just cycled over 800 miles from Calais to Nice.

“As we were heading towards where the incident occurred my father said he was stopping. He shouted the word ‘stop’ so we could all hear him.

“I believed my father was shouting the word ‘stop’ so that he could take photos of the scenery. I then heard a loud scraping noise on the road behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw my father falling over the wall behind me.

“He fell on his right side. One or two seconds later I heard him hit the ground below.

“I went over to him. I could see he was unconscious and there was a small amount of blood under his head and mouth.”

He added that local resident Valérie Hernandez had seen his father fall to the ground in front of her window and called the ambulance and that paramedics and police arrived at the scene about five minutes later.

Despite desperate efforts to save Mr Bright’s life, ambulance crews were not able to resuscitate him and his son was informed he had died shortly after noon that day on August 12 last year.

The group was cycling the 969-mile stretch from Swindon to Nice in the memory of Mr Bright’s 24-year-old son, George Bright, who had been undertaking the same journey shortly before his death, but had returned home after injuring his knee.

Sometime after this, on May 29 2014, George tragically died when he fell from a hotel window while travelling in Thailand.

A Justgiving fundraiser page, set up by another brother, Ben Coogan, raised more than £5,300 for the revisit charity ride, of which they had completed more than 800 miles when Mr Bright died.

However, while the middle-aged sales director at Huek UK had suffered two broken ribs and bruising to his body in the fall, a post-mortem examination conducted in France revealed that none of the injuries he had sustained had been fatal.

Apart from superficial bleeding to the head, the cyclist had suffered no damage to the brain or heart. However, pathologists Dr Celine Leccia and Dr Irina Radoman did find he had a slightly enlarged heart, which was prone to cardiac arythmias when combined with a lot of exercise.

Concluding the inquest, Peter Bedford, the senior coroner for Berkshire, said: “I would love to be able to give you a clear, simple explanation to Mr Bright’s death, but in such a situation it is simply not possible.

“The conclusion provided by the police was ‘a violent death on a public highway,’ but this was a premature description coming out of France before all the information was in place.”

Mr Bedford said the most likely conclusion to draw would be one of cardiac arrhythmia, as this would not leave any physical signs in its wake.

He said: “It is more likely than not that this was a natural event, combined with all the physical exercise and the charity cycle ride.

“I am left with a conclusion that Robert Bright died on August 12, 2016, outside Valérie Hernandez’s address in Villefranche-sur-mer in Nice, France. The results from the post-mortem examination have led to my conclusion that he died of natural causes.”