A DAREDEVIL dad from Yate is now safely back on earth after taking a leap for a good cause.

Tony May, 69, decided to take the plunge with a sponsored skydive, aiming to raise money for St Peter’s Hospice in Bristol.

He says: “My brother-in-law Mike passed away two years ago from cancer, and my brother Alan died a month later, also from cancer. Both received fantastic care from St Peter’s Hospice in Bristol and Longfield in Minchinhampton, and I wanted to do something to help the hospices, which are run by such special people.

“All the family has got involved with previous fundraisers, such as the garden fete we did last year, but I saw the sponsored skydive and decided to do that this year.”

Tony took to the skies with Skydive Netheravon in Wiltshire. He says: “We had about 30 minutes training and went through a landing drill, then it was time to go. It was a tandem dive so I jumped with an instructor, Dean, who’s a member of the Red Devils, the Parachute Regiment display team.”

After boarding a small aircraft, the jumpers were taken up through cloud to 13,200 feet.

Tony said: “Above the cloud it was beautiful sunshine, and the first mile was freefall where we reached speeds up to 125mph. I enjoyed it all, especially the freefall, and our landing was spot on, with Dean controlling the speed to land right on target. It was fantastic.”

Back on terra firma, Tony was met by a family reception committee, with his wife Susan, daughters Amanda and Debbie, brother Ron, sister-in-law Lesley, son-in-law Lee, granddaughter Molly and her boyfriend Josh all having turned up to support the jump.

Tony said: “It was fantastic to get such family support. So far I’ve raised over £1,600 but doing the jump was the easy bit: the family have done the hard work in getting sponsorship, especially Amanda who’s organised so much.”

Amanda, who lives in London, said: “We are so proud of dad. He’s raised money over several years and has great support from his local community, especially the Miners Social Club at Coalpit Heath.”

If anybody would like to support Tony’s fundraising please visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/amanda-sands4